u/wonderstarish2021

Hi everyone,

I have a 2021 Toyota RAV4 XLE with about 74,600 miles. Earlier tonight I got the “Engine Maintenance Required Visit Your Dealer” message on the dashboard.

A few things:

No check engine light

No flashing lights

Temperature gauge stays completely normal

Car is driving normally

No shaking, misfiring, loss of power, etc.

The message comes and goes. Sometimes it disappears completely, then comes back after restarting the car. At one point it was popping up every few seconds.

I went to AutoZone and they scanned it with both their scanner and the employee’s personal scanner because their store scanner wasn’t working properly. Neither scanner detected any active codes.

I have noticed what appears to be a slow coolant leak for a while now, which is why I started Googling and found a lot of posts about the coolant bypass valve issue on 2019–2021 RAV4s.

The car is NOT overheating and the temp gauge has remained steady the entire time.

I’m supposed to do a same-day Houston to Austin round trip this Sunday (~2 hours each way), and I’m trying to figure out:

Does this sound like the common coolant bypass valve issue?

Is it reasonable to still drive the car short-term if the temp gauge stays normal?

Has anyone had this warning WITHOUT codes showing yet?

I do plan to take it to a reputable mechanic once I get paid, but I wanted to see if others have experienced this exact situation.