Yaris won't start after heavy rain

[lsmaclea]

2009 Yaris 5spd 3 door liftback:

So, went out to the car this morning to go to work. Hurricane Sandy came through Boston last night and dumped a lot of rain and wind.

Car would turn over strong, and I could smell some gas coming out of the tail pipe, but it wouldn't start. No flooding, nothing wet inside the car.

Had it towed to the dealership, when they got around to looking at it a few hours later it started right up. Seems like an ignition issue to me. Any common culprits for water related ignition problems?

Thanks in advance. I have the extended Toyota warranty on it, but I can't imagine the dealer will replace anything without the car actually being broken when they have it.

[CTScott]

That is very odd. If you said that there was no sign of fuel, then I would say that the engine immobilizer system was the culprit, but with fuel flowing I don't know. The coils are sealed and are individually wired to the ECM, so one having moisture in the connector would make it run rough, but chances are slim of having moisture in all four connectors.

[lsmaclea]

Thanks. I didn't realize that these motors ran on individual coil packs.

Are the coils hard to replace?

I'll keep the thread updated if we have another no start moment.

Is it possible that the motor just needed to crank for a while? I must have cranked if for about 20 seconds total during a few tries.

[CTScott]

Usually they start very quickly. The coil packs are easy to replace. You remove the plastic cover over the engine and then they are each just mounted with one 10mm bolt.

[lsmaclea]

Cool. I'm more familiar with VW engines, but this sounds really similar.

Do the toyota coil packs fail as often as the VW ones do? I might pick up one to just keep in the car.



So, that basically means we're looking for something else to explain why the car didnt start. Ran fine this morning when I picked it up at the dealer.

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by lsmaclea

Cool. I'm more familiar with VW engines, but this sounds really similar.

Do the toyota coil packs fail as often as the VW ones do? I might pick up one to just keep in the car.



So, that basically means we're looking for something else to explain why the car didnt start. Ran fine this morning when I picked it up at the dealer.

The Toyota ones are generally very reliable. The fact that it self-cured probably means that a little moisture (or perhaps salt water) ended up where it should not have been and it eventually dried.

[CoryM]

Originally Posted by lsmaclea

Do the toyota coil packs fail as often as the VW ones do?

I had to laugh at that one. VW never did figure out how to make a coil-on-plug. You most certainly do not need to drive around with a spare. Toyota coils are pretty solid.

At this point there really isn't much to be done but drive it and forget about it until it happens again. Might want to make sure any easy to access electrical connectors are clicked in correctly but not much point going further at this time. Hopefully the Yaris just got scared of the weather and will be fine from now on

Cheers.

[bronsin]

Take the plastic valve cover off and put the electric leaf blower on the engine with the hood up is what I do when it wont start because of rain.

After the rain stops of course...

[lsmaclea]

Good advice on the leaf blower.

Do you have an idea of exactly what component you are drying out with the leaf blower? I'm of the mind to just replace that component (if we knew exactly what it was).

[bronsin]

Originally Posted by lsmaclea

Good advice on the leaf blower.

Do you have an idea of exactly what component you are drying out with the leaf blower? I'm of the mind to just replace that component (if we knew exactly what it was).

Thats the problem. You dont know what or why its not working.

I suspect nothing is dammaged. Just shorted out. The leaf blower will dry everything out and if shorting is the reason for the problem, will fix it without resorting to $$$ replacements.