intermittent hard starting

[Ramon1691]

hello yaris world i need some help this is driving me nuts the car seems to crank a few seconds maybe 7 or 8 sometimes specifically after it has been sitting for 4 hours or so, overnight seems to only take like 2 cranks and starts right up its a 2007 yaris hatchback now is beginning to do it every day not everytime i start the car tho because sometimes it starts right up is weird like it takes a few more cranks before starting the car its a 2007 yaris hatchback i bough it 3 months ago but the guy that had it before didnt keep up with maintanance very well i replaced spark plugs, replaced the oil control valve as it trew the p0012 code took out the valve and it was bent, replaced air filter, oil chnage, cleaned trottle body there is no engine codes by the way if anyone has had similar issues please help!!!!

[ex-x-fire]

Did you clean the maf sensor?

[Ramon1691]

Yes my mechanic did he also cleaned the trottle body

[ex-x-fire]

You might have a fuel pressure issue, that its bleeding down while sitting. Could be a leaky injector, bad regular, or a leaky fuel line. The best place to start is with a pressure & hold test.

[Ramon1691]

Are any of those things expensive? Car runs fantastic tho is just that issue I been using only chevron since I bought it but idk if that makes a difference

[Ramon1691]

And also what happens if I drive it like this for s while worst case scenario will it not start at all? Will it get worse and take even more time to start?

[Lightrfire]

I have this exact same issue and it's really annoying. I think mine is caused by a leaking fuel injector but I haven't had the money to try and replace them. As suggested by others I've swapped the maf with the one out of my sienna which runs great and it's the same issue. I have a data reader on my code scanner that shows coolant temp and it is reading accurately. The only two things left are the fuel pressure regulator in the tank and leaking fuel injectors. It could be a fuel pump as well but mine failed last month and has been changed with a new Toyota part so I don't think it's that. I'm going to try swapping the fuel injectors next week so I'll keep you updated to see if it helps at all.

[Ramon1691]

Hello so how long have you been driving it like that? Also I hope you are able to figure it out it is really annoying I called a different mechanic he said he seen the injectors leak on corollas and Yaris I don't know but he said that is really common for the injectors on this engines to go bad to leak specifically he mentioned that the vvti on the yaris was a really bad idea also anyways I don't have the money right now to do a major repair so I'm just going to keep driving it and deal with it and save money on the mean time I'm hoping yours is just an injector I looked online they are pretty inexpensive I almost regret buying the car previous owner probably didn't do anything to it as it had the original air filter lol

[Ramon1691]

How many miles you got on yours light fire?
I'm at 150000

[Lightrfire]

Mines been like this for a couple months. My fuel pump failed last month and I hoped changing it would fix that also but that wasn't the case. It's been kinda cold the past couple months and as you know the problem only happens when the engine is hot so I haven't really bothered to fix it. Now that it's warming it's happening more and more and now I'm getting annoyed enough to fix it. My car has 94000 on it but it's been very neglected by its previous owner similar to yours. The part that sucks is If I did change the injectors I wouldn't know which one so I would have to change all 4. like you I don't really have extra money right now for repair so I've been putting off fixing it. If it's not the injectors it's gotta be the fuel pressure regulator but that's pretty expensive too... I'll keep you updated and let you know what ends up fixing it. In the meantime I wouldn't worry to much about. When mine does act up it cranks forever but it does start which is the main thing I guess.

[Ramon1691]

Yes post an update as soon as you able to I will appreciate it greatly yea I was thinking the same thing not to be stressing about it since it does start every time tho as longest it doesn't leave me stranded somewhere well good luck I'm hoping for the cheapest fix :)

[Lightrfire]

I found a set of four new oem injectors for cheap so I ordered them. I should get them by wed so I'll give you an update then. It seems like there's a few threads about this problem but none of them post what fixed it in the end....

[Lightrfire]

Hey Ramon just to give you an update I got the 4 new fuel injectors in and the symptom is exactly the same.... It must be the fuel pressure regulator after all... If you decide to fix this problem on your car I'd start with that first. Please let me know if that end up fixing it. for now I'm just going to live with it.

[Ramon1691]

Thanks for the update and I'm sorry to hear the issue hasn't been fixed yet I did some research and it could also be the starter idk where I found it at but it says that the starter can have issues starting in the heat because of some part wearing out of a protection of some sort to be honest I'm going to leave it as it is probably will get worse around May June when it gets to the high 100 out here lol I was going to ask you does your starter sound like is sticking sometimes? Is like a grinding noise idk how to explain it?

[Lightrfire]

My starter sounds fine actually it's less than a month old lol. I've had a bad month of car repairs.. The car seems to be cranking fine which imo doesn't sound like a starter problem. It just cranks forever sometimes before it starts. Your car may be different..it's possible all that cranking just wore your starter out a little

[Ramon1691]

Lol it sucks they are good card I seem them go 400 thousand miles easily I guess is just our luck all the maintenance the previous owne didnt do we going to end up doing it lol

[Lightrfire]

Hi Ramon I finally fixed the problem yesterday. It ended up being a fuel pressure regulator which is located in the fuel pump assembly. Not too hard to change. Starts right up every time now! Sorry for the delay in updating the weather has been nice so I've been driving my mr2 around.

[Ramon1691]

I'm so glad you got that fixed lol finally this cars are great yet so buggy