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Old 11-16-2016, 08:57 PM   #1
lith89
 
Drives: Yaris 2006 Manual
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Yaris won't start properly/reliably

Hey - First time posting here, as well as car forums in general so appreciate the help.

Took Yaris (2006 manual) in for a service a couple weeks ago, and in the service had the fuel filter changed. Got the car back after the service and it ran well but stunk of fuel (awfully strong, partner and I felt a bit sick from it). Anyway, we took the car back in the next day as it hadn't gone away and turns out they hadn't, if I remember right, put a cap back on correctly. So took the car home, next day the fuel smell came back and the car was now having trouble starting. It would "crank" but not start on the first go, requiring up to 3 attempts to start. So we took the car back in again and they said they hadn't put the fuel pump back together properly (something about an O ring?) and they had fixed that, though they weren't sure exactly if that was causing the problems with the car starting. So, again, we take the car back and the fuel smell is now gone but the car is really struggling to start every now and then (maybe every second time we use the car it takes a couple tries to get the car to start). We replaced the battery, just in case it was that, turns out it wasn't. Called them about this, they said there not sure what's wrong. One other thing we've noticed since the service is - when we refuel and fill the car the meter isn't saying full, it's showing one bar under, something it hasn't done before. So I've kinda just given up for now, with work being busy taking it back in this often is a little bit difficult.

These are all new problems that popped up after being serviced, car's been remarkably reliable for the last 10 years.

TL;DR -

Took car in for service (included fuel filter change).
Took car back as car stank of fuel when driven.
They said "cap" wasn't put on properly in service, now fixed.
After driving around a bit we notice fuel smell is back and now the car won't start properly (cranks but won't start all the time).
So, we take the car back in. They said pump wasn't put back together properly (O ring?).
After taking the car back and driving around the car still won't start properly/reliably, and fuel meter doesn't show full when filled (at this point the fuel smell is gone).
We replaced the battery just in case it was that, didn't help with anything.

Any suggestions/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Last edited by lith89; 11-21-2016 at 05:14 AM.
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Old 11-17-2016, 01:27 PM   #2
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I take it the car was running fine when you brought it in for service?
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Old 11-17-2016, 03:26 PM   #3
lith89
 
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Yeah, the car was running fine. Just took it in for its regular service.
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Old 11-17-2016, 06:59 PM   #4
CTScott
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Sounds like they made some mistakes when taking apart the fuel system to replace the filter. The fuel smell would concern me as it means that fuel is where it shouldn't be. I would go back to them and make them replace the entire fuel sender assembly, as they likely damaged some portion of it taking it apart to replace the filter.

The sender assembly is one entire assembly, containing the pump, filter and fuel level sender.
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Old 11-18-2016, 12:03 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CTScott View Post
Sounds like they made some mistakes when taking apart the fuel system to replace the filter. The fuel smell would concern me as it means that fuel is where it shouldn't be. I would go back to them and make them replace the entire fuel sender assembly, as they likely damaged some portion of it taking it apart to replace the filter.

The sender assembly is one entire assembly, containing the pump, filter and fuel level sender.
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Old 11-18-2016, 12:15 AM   #6
CoryM
 
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As mentioned, I bet the fuel pressure is leaking internally in the pump assembly. They probably broke something on the pump assembly when messing with it. Fuel lever sensor is probably damaged as well which is why it reads low. Time to talk to the manager there and get it sorted (aka a new pump assembly).
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Old 11-18-2016, 02:57 AM   #7
lith89
 
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Thanks everyone for the advice.

It's actually the Manager we've been dealing with so far. As someone who's not had an issue with a mechanic/service before (and not exactly knowledgeable when it comes to cars) should I just go in and ask that they fix it(cost on them if there at fault?), as there have been multiple mistakes made so far and still having issues?
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Old 11-18-2016, 11:33 AM   #8
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This is when you find out how good your shop is. Mistakes happen, but it's how they deal with it that matters. Any reputable shop will stand by their work, and fix their mistakes at no charge to the customer. The trick now is to make sure they understand that these issues have been happening only since they were working on the fuel pump assembly. People being people, it can be hard to convince some shops to deal with their mistakes properly. And shops have to deal with customers who think that anything that goes wrong with their car is the mechanics fault, even though it's unrelated to the repairs. So even reputable shops look carefully to see if the problem is actually theirs to fix or not. I've seen people figure we should fix their wheel bearings for free because they suddenly got noisy ever since we replaced the customers very noisy muffler that they had been driving with for months......

Just go back, explain what has been happening and that it's only been happening since they were working on the fuel pump. Hopefully they will be easy to deal with.

Cheers.
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Old 11-18-2016, 09:57 PM   #9
SirDigby
 
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...why did they change the fuel filter? I would think the sending unit is not a (normally)serviceable part. usually it's replaced as an entire unit. (unless modifying it) is this a Toyota dealership?
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Old 11-20-2016, 04:48 AM   #10
jra
 
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If you smell gas it must be an external leak, could be leaking where pump mounts to tank, or cracked tank or pump housing, where fuel line connects to pump, or could be a fuel line under hood if they had off to pressure test pump and didn't get line back together right.
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Old 11-21-2016, 01:54 AM   #11
lith89
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SirDigby View Post
...why did they change the fuel filter? I would think the sending unit is not a (normally)serviceable part. usually it's replaced as an entire unit. (unless modifying it) is this a Toyota dealership?
Fuel filter change was part of the service "package". This isn't a Toyota dealership, it's a different independent chain (large one).

Quote:
Originally Posted by jra View Post
If you smell gas it must be an external leak, could be leaking where pump mounts to tank, or cracked tank or pump housing, where fuel line connects to pump, or could be a fuel line under hood if they had off to pressure test pump and didn't get line back together right.
The gas smell went away after we took it back the second time, sorry if that wasn't clear in my OP.

Quote:
Originally Posted by CoryM View Post
This is when you find out how good your shop is. Mistakes happen, but it's how they deal with it that matters. Any reputable shop will stand by their work, and fix their mistakes at no charge to the customer. The trick now is to make sure they understand that these issues have been happening only since they were working on the fuel pump assembly. People being people, it can be hard to convince some shops to deal with their mistakes properly. And shops have to deal with customers who think that anything that goes wrong with their car is the mechanics fault, even though it's unrelated to the repairs. So even reputable shops look carefully to see if the problem is actually theirs to fix or not. I've seen people figure we should fix their wheel bearings for free because they suddenly got noisy ever since we replaced the customers very noisy muffler that they had been driving with for months......

Just go back, explain what has been happening and that it's only been happening since they were working on the fuel pump. Hopefully they will be easy to deal with.

Cheers.
Will be taking the car back in the next couple days, thanks for the advice!

(Reworded the TL;DR in OP to hopefully clear up a few things)
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