what does this symbol mean?

Dashboard warning lights

Which system each dashboard light relates to, and whether it is a warning or information light.

Test yourself: Dashboard warning lights quiz

Warning lights 10 symbols

Electric vehicle lights 4 symbols

Indicators 9 symbols

Fluid symbols 2 symbols

Lights 10 symbols

About dashboard warning lights

Dashboard warning lights are the car symbols that light up on a vehicle's instrument panel to report on its systems. The U.S. federal safety standard for them, FMVSS No. 101, calls them telltales: optical signals that, when lit, indicate that a device is working, that something is functioning correctly or not, or that something has failed. Each symbol has its own page, with what it relates to and the colour it shows.

What the colours mean

Toyota explains its own dashboard colours this way: yellow icons indicate an item of importance, such as low fuel, but are not necessarily a warning, and red icons indicate a condition that requires immediate attention, such as an open door or low engine oil pressure. For some lights the colour is fixed by regulation. UN Regulation No. 121 sets engine oil pressure and coolant temperature as red, low fuel and low tire pressure as yellow, the turn signals as green and the high beams as blue, and refers to the general colour code of ISO 2575 for showing other meanings.

Why the same light can look different

FMVSS No. 101 requires the lights it lists to use its symbols, or ones substantially similar in form, but a manufacturer may use any symbol, word or abbreviation for a light that is not on the list. So beyond the common lights, symbols vary from one manufacturer to another, and Toyota points drivers who can't find a light on its list to the owner's manual.

Differences by country or standard

In the United States the rules are FMVSS No. 101. UN Regulation No. 121 and Canada's Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations cover the same lights and sometimes set the colours differently: Canada allows the brake system malfunction light to be red or red-orange, and the airbag light red or yellow.

Light indicators

The lights that report on the car’s own lamps are drawn as a lamp giving out lines of light. The lines are level for the high beams and slant down for the low beams, and a wavy line through them marks the front and rear fog lights. UN Regulation No. 121 sets the colours: green for the low beams, the front fog lamps and the parking lamps, yellow for the rear fog lamp, blue for the high beams and red for the hazard warning signal. Canada’s regulations describe the parking lamp symbol as two lamps placed back to back, and the hazard warning symbol as two triangles, one inside the other.

Sources

  1. Standard No. 101; Controls and displays, 49 CFR 571.101 (FMVSS No. 101), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (Electronic Code of Federal Regulations)
  2. Toyota Dashboard Symbols & Warning Lights Meaning, Toyota Motor North America (MyToyota)
  3. Regulation No. 121: Uniform provisions concerning the approval of vehicles with regard to the location and identification of hand controls, tell-tales and indicators, UN Regulation No. 121, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (text published by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism), Table 1
  4. Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations (C.R.C., c. 1038): Identification of Controls, Tell-tales and Indicators, C.R.C., c. 1038, Schedule IV, s. 101, Government of Canada, Justice Laws Website, s. 101, Table

Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research