Flooded or starved? - Toyota Yaris Forums

frailer · 01-23-2010, 01:29 AM

Have a 1.3 XR. Work/Co.vehicle. (Sydney, Australia).
Had the car in the driveway near the street. very hot day, Wife decided to move up drive. Engine on for a few seconds. She says herself she switched on quickly.
When I went to start it in the afternoon, wouldn't start. Cranking fine. Followed manual advice, and held foot to floor for the required time (20 secs?). Still no joy. Road service came later that night. He cranked it for longer, and got it going. he said, "You've got to listen for it".

...presumably it starting to fire.
Questions...boss thinks there is something 'not right' going on; some underlying fault.
I'm convinced it's a one-off. Guy who dropped it back to me after it getting the all-clear says that he always waits for all dash lights to appear, and wait for any that turn off as a matter of routine, to do so before cranking. Sounds like sound advice.
Anyone familiar with the EMS and troubleshooting? Would such an event show on the diagnisis when they plug in at the dealer's?
Any other thoughts welcome.

dutchy999 · 01-25-2010, 06:26 AM

My 1998 VW did the same thing. Start it, move it forward, turn it off. Come back later -> no start. It was actually well-documented at the VW websites.

I was told at the time that in order to prevent this the VW engine had to run for at least 2 minutes before shutting it off. The explanation was that right after startup the engine and ECU perform all kinds of checks, and that shutting the engine off while these checks are being performed leaves the engine in a confused state, leading to hard starts.

Maybe the same thing is going on with your Yaris. FWIW, after abiding by the above rule, I never had a hard start problem with the VW again.

Cheers

dutchy999

frailer · 02-01-2010, 06:41 PM

Thanks dutchy999. My gut level feeling on it too. The dealer we went to is less than helpful. Too big. But I suspect the event may not have shown up anyway on the ECU diagnostics. Good thing to bear in mind.
I also think the extreme weather on the next day took it outside the ball-park for a kick-off, if it was in an unfinished check-state.

yaris-me · 02-04-2010, 04:46 AM

I think your wife got the spark plug wet with gas. Add to that the DBW throttle, you can't crank the engine with the throttle open to dry the plugs. The road service knew enough to keep cranking till the plugs got dry. Shutting down a warm engine will have heated plug which will evaporate any gas on the plugs.

If the plugs get wet with gas, it will happen again. The VW has the same problem, but they tell their customers a good story about how not to confuse the engine.

dutchy999 · 02-05-2010, 04:00 PM

VW Websites = VW Owners' websites, NOT VW Of America.

Never said that the engine being in "confused" state was definitely the cause of the no-start. All I said is that after abiding by the "rule" as state in above post, I never had a hard-start problem with the VW again. (Plenty of other issues (

), but no hard-starts.)

FWIW: German engineering = needlessly complicated, not reliable... Talk to Jetta/Bora owners about busted window regulators. And for my Passat: $1500 ABS unit, anyone?

dutchy999

01-23-2010, 01:29 AM	#1
frailer Drives: '08 5 door Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 7	Flooded or starved? Have a 1.3 XR. Work/Co.vehicle. (Sydney, Australia). Had the car in the driveway near the street. very hot day, Wife decided to move up drive. Engine on for a few seconds. She says herself she switched on quickly. When I went to start it in the afternoon, wouldn't start. Cranking fine. Followed manual advice, and held foot to floor for the required time (20 secs?). Still no joy. Road service came later that night. He cranked it for longer, and got it going. he said, "You've got to listen for it". ...presumably it starting to fire. Questions...boss thinks there is something 'not right' going on; some underlying fault. I'm convinced it's a one-off. Guy who dropped it back to me after it getting the all-clear says that he always waits for all dash lights to appear, and wait for any that turn off as a matter of routine, to do so before cranking. Sounds like sound advice. Anyone familiar with the EMS and troubleshooting? Would such an event show on the diagnisis when they plug in at the dealer's? Any other thoughts welcome.

02-05-2010, 04:00 PM	#5
dutchy999 Drives: 2008 Yaris LB S Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: NY State Posts: 8	VW Websites = VW Owners' websites, NOT VW Of America. Never said that the engine being in "confused" state was definitely the cause of the no-start. All I said is that after abiding by the "rule" as state in above post, I never had a hard-start problem with the VW again. (Plenty of other issues (), but no hard-starts.) FWIW: German engineering = needlessly complicated, not reliable... Talk to Jetta/Bora owners about busted window regulators. And for my Passat: $1500 ABS unit, anyone? dutchy999

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01-25-2010, 06:26 AM	#2
dutchy999 Drives: 2008 Yaris LB S Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: NY State Posts: 8	My 1998 VW did the same thing. Start it, move it forward, turn it off. Come back later -> no start. It was actually well-documented at the VW websites. I was told at the time that in order to prevent this the VW engine had to run for at least 2 minutes before shutting it off. The explanation was that right after startup the engine and ECU perform all kinds of checks, and that shutting the engine off while these checks are being performed leaves the engine in a confused state, leading to hard starts. Maybe the same thing is going on with your Yaris. FWIW, after abiding by the above rule, I never had a hard start problem with the VW again. Cheers dutchy999

02-01-2010, 06:41 PM	#3
frailer Drives: '08 5 door Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 7	Thanks dutchy999. My gut level feeling on it too. The dealer we went to is less than helpful. Too big. But I suspect the event may not have shown up anyway on the ECU diagnostics. Good thing to bear in mind. I also think the extreme weather on the next day took it outside the ball-park for a kick-off, if it was in an unfinished check-state.

02-04-2010, 04:46 AM	#4
yaris-me Learn to Relax Drives: 2007, Meteorite, LB Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Anaheim, CA Posts: 2,070	I think your wife got the spark plug wet with gas. Add to that the DBW throttle, you can't crank the engine with the throttle open to dry the plugs. The road service knew enough to keep cranking till the plugs got dry. Shutting down a warm engine will have heated plug which will evaporate any gas on the plugs. If the plugs get wet with gas, it will happen again. The VW has the same problem, but they tell their customers a good story about how not to confuse the engine.