crank, fire, hesitate, crank, fire, run, gas smell

[twowheels]

This only seems to happen when I park in front of my house which is on a slight incline (about 5% grade), but every once in a while I'll start the engine cold and it'll crank, fire, not start, crank some more, finally fire up, and then run just fine, but I'll smell gas. Any idea what's going on?

BTW, I've gotten into the habit of starting the engine by just tapping the key into start and immediately letting go, letting the ECU take over the starting process. I doubt this is related because once the start sequence has taken over it shouldn't matter that I've let go of the key. The big drawback that I can see is that I keep half-starting my Subaru, cranking for not quite enough time and then letting go. :-)

[PHXDEMON]

How many miles? CEL? How old is your battery?

[1stToyota]

This only seems to happen when I park in front of my house which is on a slight incline (about 5% grade), but every once in a while I'll start the engine cold and it'll crank, fire, not start, crank some more, finally fire up, and then run just fine, but I'll smell gas. Any idea what's going on?

BTW, I've gotten into the habit of starting the engine by just tapping the key into start and immediately letting go, letting the ECU take over the starting process. I doubt this is related because once the start sequence has taken over it shouldn't matter that I've let go of the key. The big drawback that I can see is that I keep half-starting my Subaru, cranking for not quite enough time and then letting go. :-)

Sounds like you're trying to let the ECU do too much of the work. Could stumble because the fuel pressure doesn't build up enough when you *tap* and release *immediately*...and you smell gas because the starting process gets fouled/f***ed up. Probably not even getting good enough signal from the crank sensor...

[twowheels]

The car is 5.5 months old and has 15000 miles on it, so the battery and everything else should be fresh.

As for the tapping and releasing. The ECU takes over the starting process. The key is merely a signal, unlike other cars where you are in control of how long the starter stays in. It's not so much a tap as just a very short time spent in the start position, but I really doubt that's the cause since it goes through the whole process of continuing to crank for 3 or 4 seconds until it starts.

[twowheels]

Looks like there's another thread on this...

http://www.yarisworld.com/forums/showthread.php?p=340230

I guess I'm not the only one who has this happen. Interestingly that other thread was started two days before mine -- I didn't see it.

[1stToyota]

The car is 5.5 months old and has 15000 miles on it, so the battery and everything else should be fresh.

As for the tapping and releasing. The ECU takes over the starting process. The key is merely a signal, unlike other cars where you are in control of how long the starter stays in. It's not so much a tap as just a very short time spent in the start position, but I really doubt that's the cause since it goes through the whole process of continuing to crank for 3 or 4 seconds until it starts.

It's real simple...stop the taps long enough to see if the problem persists. I've never heard of anyone doing the tapping method and don't know what the advantage would be if engine continues to crank 3 or 4 seconds in the run mode; I've never needed to crank mine more than 2 or 3 seconds with the ignition in the start mode.

[twowheels]

I'm not sure it's so simple... the ECU software takes over the cranking once it has received the signal. Unlike older cars you're not the one controlling the cranking process. Holding the key longer doesn't change anything.

Also, being intermittent (like once per month) there's no way to know whether or not holding the key longer stopped it from happening or if it just hasn't happened.

[AlexNet0]

It's real simple...stop the taps long enough to see if the problem persists. I've never heard of anyone doing the tapping method and don't know what the advantage would be if engine continues to crank 3 or 4 seconds in the run mode; I've never needed to crank mine more than 2 or 3 seconds with the ignition in the start mode.

It doesnt make a difference if you hold it or if you just turn to start and release.

[1stToyota]

I'm not sure it's so simple... the ECU software takes over the cranking once it has received the signal. Unlike older cars you're not the one controlling the cranking process. Holding the key longer doesn't change anything.

Also, being intermittent (like once per month) there's no way to know whether or not holding the key longer stopped it from happening or if it just hasn't happened.

Owner's manual doesn't mention this feature, not that I could find (I just tried it myself...hey, it does crank by itself; what a smart little car :thumbsup:) ...manual just says turn switch to START to start car, doesn't mention anything about holding or releasing, and that engine will stop cranking within 20 seconds if engine hasn't started by then.

16 months and no problems with starting yet; maybe I better not change my old ways. :wink:

[IllusionX]

as i mentioned on the other thread, turn it to ON, and let the ECU have time to turn off some lights on the dashboard before turning it to START.

I also just tap start once and let the ECU start by itself.....