2007 Sedan suddenly won't start

[acyaris]

Hi,

We have a 2007 Yaris sedan, automatic with 120K miles. The car has always started and run great until yesterday morning. I'll give a little background in case there is a link... I put the car in the garage at the start of the the Thanksgiving holiday with plans on replacing the front exhaust donut gasket, springs and bolts. I jacked both sides of the front up and got under the car on the weekend to inspect the donut gasket area. I saw right away that the bolts NAPA sold me were straight bolts with loose sleeves and the springs and not the shoulder bolts on our Yaris. I also saw that the bolt heads looks rusty and I couldn't find a socket that would fit them. I put a pair of vice grips on one bolt head (before I knew the NAPA bolts were the wrong type) and tried to turn it, it didn't move. I stopped, saw the new bolts were wrong and put the car down. Oh, the bracket that supports that exhaust connection between the pipe and the header looks pretty much rusted through in a few spots, need to order that too... After putting the car down, I checked the oil and then reset the maintenance dash reminder as I hadn't done this at the last oil change. I didn't try to start the car. Just left it until yesterday morning.

I tried to start the car yesterday morning and it immediately didn't sound right. It sputtered a very few times but wouldn't start, the starter was turning. After getting home last night I tried starting it again and it sputtered quite a few times off and on but just wouldn't start. I looked at it in more detail and the starter is turning the engine over as the belt is turning. My son and I cleaned the battery terminals and checked all the fuses under the hood including the AM2 fuse, all good. I checked the air filter and it looked fine with no obstructions (aka mice nests) seen. I read a post here from Scott and checked the voltage at the brown coil wire with the ignition switch in the ON position and got just over 12 volts. We took the plugs out and they looked a bit dirty but not very wet for the amount I was turning the engine over. We could smell some gas on the plugs but they didn't look "wet". After having tried to start it multiple times, I had my sone walk to the back of the car and listen for the fuel pump to turn on when I turned the key on. He didn't hear anything, but maybe the system was pressurized at that point and the pump wouldn't kick on. Oh, I also hooked a code reader up to the car and it showed no codes.

Whatever has happened to the car was like flipping a light switch. It was a great starting and great running car and then all of a sudden it won't start. There was no period of several days or weeks where I started having trouble getting it started or anything like that.

If anyone has any suggestions on where to look or what to try, I'd really appreciate it. My only options now are to have it towed to the dealer ($$) or try and fix it myself. I do have another vehicle to drive to work so I have the benefit of a little extra time to get it fixed.

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

Jim