PCS Temporarily Not Available (2 Viewers)

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Jul 31, 2004
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Dallas, TX
Any one experienced this? I was making check deliveries this morning, so there were several stops during a two hour drive. Weather was about 40 degrees and it was raining on and off. The PCS light turned on and the display said PCS Temporarily not available. Stayed on a few minutes and then went off. Came on one more time after my next stop and only stayed on for a couple of minutes. Nothing the rest of the day. When it was on, none of the display buttons would show info on the screen. I usually keep it on mph and tried to scroll, but nothing would display.

The manual says to clean the grill. Where? And most important why? I have about 600 miles on this new 2014 200.

Any ideas?

Chad
 
Hi Chad,

On my to do list to check this out as well. I experienced a similar situation awhile back. It had rained then stop raining. My 04 is just now 1k miles on it.

I suspect the front grill sensor gets dirty and not able to do its thing. Sorry, not much help but figured that it would be good to know others are experiencing a similar issue.
 
I have had this happen multiple times over the last couple years... here's my unofficial take on it, the Toyota symbol on the front grill is your radar unit, also works with the PCS, if it gets dirty or if it's raining too hard etc, then it can't get a "view" of what's ahead. Mine has usually stopped working under heavy rain or snow, always comes back on in about 10 minutes when conditions improve! Nothing to worry about, the front sensor is just telling ya it can't see, that's all
 
Good to know it happens to others. Hard not worry about issues with a new Vehicle. I guess it is similar to watching Direct TV when it's snowing. Expect it to stop working.
 
I too have had this happen several times, mostly when its raining/snowing and the temperature is around freezing. Once however, I had this happen during the summer and was using the radar cruise control. As soon as the PCS warning came up, I was not able to use the radar cruise control, and could not switch to normal cruise control. When I stopped for gas and restarted the truck - all was good.
 
Just to echo what everyone else is already saying, I think this is completely normal. We had the same thing happen with our 2013 cruiser going over Donner Pass in CA during a wet snowstorm a few months back. PCS Unavailable came up on the dash for about 20 minutes, then eventually cleared. Transient sensor blockage I'd say.
 
Radar cruise is so awesome.

This is normal. Imagine if it came up on a inferior product like Range Rover, G-wagon and the like. $$$. Nerves. Time wasted.
 
Agreed on radar cruise! I've got an X5 and am about to trade it on a second cruiser because I dig my wife's ride so much. We recently did a drive from Colorado to California and I think at one point I drove ~200 miles using radar cruise without touching a pedal! I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I think the LC is the best vehicle made, hands down.

Not to highjack this thread, but here's a time lapse of our 13 hour drive home squeezed into 4 minutes.

 
gopro?
 
Yes GoPro Hero 3 with an Anker Astro E7 external battery (25600mAh) connected via USB. The whole shoot only consumed one bar of power on the battery's indicator! It's a sweet setup if you're doing a long shoot, as GoPro cameras have pretty poor battery life running standalone. I think the camera could go for days with this battery.

From Telluride to the four corners region I shot one frame every two seconds to get more detail through the mountains, then switched it to one frame every ten seconds to speed things up through Arizona. Made the clip in the free GoPro Studio software with a .WAV file I created in Adobe Soundbooth using a stock "score" file. You can set the length of the score and it automatically creates a music file with appropriate start-middle-end sequences to match the length you need. Pretty cool.

Tried to make a video on the way out but left the lens cap on. :-/ Was bummed.
 
Well, I am getting the message now....PCS temporarily unavailable. I have a 2014 as well. I have had it over a year and did not see the issue at all during the first 11 months of ownership and we get plenty of rain here in Portland. Now, it's happening regularly in the rain over 40 mph. Is this normal or should I go get it checked out? It comes and goes. Stays on during rain at speed then goes away when I slow down or if it quits raining.

Thanks,

Bart
 
Well, I am getting the message now....PCS temporarily unavailable. I have a 2014 as well. I have had it over a year and did not see the issue at all during the first 11 months of ownership and we get plenty of rain here in Portland. Now, it's happening regularly in the rain over 40 mph. Is this normal or should I go get it checked out? It comes and goes. Stays on during rain at speed then goes away when I slow down or if it quits raining.

Thanks,

Bart
I live just north of you up here in the Tacoma area, plenty of rain here also! The only times I have received that message are during snow and heavy rain! During what I would call regular rain at hwy speeds I never get that message. Hope that helps...
 
I got the message for the first time driving over snow and slushy carp over Donner Summit 2 weeks ago. Wiping the radar sensors clean during a gas stop fixed the issue.
 
Ok....I have a question.....

Does the PCS rely on the one radar sensor behind the Toyota logo on the grill or does it rely on this sensor plus the sensors on the bumpers? For some reason, I am thinking the PCS is just tied to the large sensor behind the logo.

Thanks
 
PCS is only the sensor behind the logo.

The only time I got that message was during a snow storm.
 
I had a related issue when the winch got installed. The solenoid box was blocking the 'view' intermittently. I solved it by simply bending the mounting bracket as far down as I could. Now I've only seen that message come on when climbing specific elevations, which is a bit weird, but for my day to day driving the message doesn't pop up.
 
Thanks. It seems I am getting the message when it rains...any amount. The pcs flashes....then goes solid....then the display says pcs temporarily unavailable. When it stops raining....the message and the pcs light goes away.
 
Mine started blinking yesterday, covered with snow. Wiped it off with a towel and the light disappeared.
 

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