Random No Start Issue

[Darkhorse6]

Hi All,

I've having a random starting issue. Every now and again, I will start my 08 yaris 1.5 mt and it will either long crank or crank, fire and immediately stall.

Normally on the next start up the car is fine. Even if I shut the car off and restart it cranks and fires normally.

Today I had about a 30 minute episode where the car would crank, fire for a split second and then stall. The weather is about 20c/68f today, the car had been parked for about 30 mins. After many attempts of giving it gas and not giving it gas, the car finally fired and ran and idled perfectly fine.

Any ideas on what this could be? Could it be the crank position sensor?

[Darkhorse6]

I should also mention that I have 3/4 of a tank of gas, 87 octane, which I bought at Shell station in town where I have previously bought gas.

[brushforhire]

Are there any check engine lights?

[Darkhorse6]

No check engine lights unfortunately

[CTScott]

Possibility of the fuel filter being clogged. That will make it hard to start, but then run fine once started.

[brushforhire]

Do you let your gas get really low before you fill up? I am thinking CTScott is dead on. I know we had a few customers who got some residue in the tank, and the pump would suck it up to the little bag looking filter on the bottom of the pump, and it would deprive the engine of fuel.

[froger]

Hello , if your car is Canadian ,A 2008 Canadian model came with a immobilizer, It kinda sounds like you are having an immobilizer issue.Sometimes when you start the car too fast, the signal from the immobilizer ecu doesn't get received by the engine ecu, so then the engine ecu locks you out (cranks but no start),after the second attempt or a long cranking eventually the signal is received and then the engine starts.The other issue with the immobilizer is if you leave the keys in the ignition too long the immobilizer ecu goes to sleep ,then you won't be able to start the car at all ,unless you pull the keys out of the car and wait about a minute before starting again .Also if you have an aftermarket engine remote start ,I would look to see if that isn't messing with the immobilizer ecu,had it where it burnt out an ecu ,back feed through the immobilizer communication lines.