Cheap hesitation or lag fix

[mirageman]

Originally Posted by laurenth

Sorry for unearthing this old thread,
I have an 04 Yaris 1.0 with the same infuriating problem, I use the double acceleration trick at red lights, first quick tap on the paddle to "wake up" the beast then the second one to actually take off.
was a solution ever found?

Contrary to what has been written on countless threads by heavyweight hitter posters, there is no "old threads" in a forum. New people with new problems will search and come up with older threads here and read what others have done. I haven't been here in a while and I don't care when a thread was written if there is something to share. Of course you won't be helping the original poster if they had an issue back then, but you'll help others who come to read. I also see that your post was quite a while ago, but I have no qualms about responding now. :-)

You hit the nail right on the head. That is exactly what needs to be done... It hardly ever happens anymore though, as I have "become one" with my car and can anticipate immediately when it will happen and immediately step on the clutch and save it before it croaks and retry just as you described. I don't think it has happened in a year actually where it would stall at a light. I am convinced that the ecu keeps trimming leaner and leaner if you drive very light most of the time, and a lean idle will make it easy for the engine to stall at a light. I know it runs lean because I can hear the knocking/pinging (detonation) when I catch and save it before it stalls. I noticed that if I drove a bit heavier regularly, it wouldn't happen anymore. I'd get pissed off after a stall and then beat on it a bit and it would then not stall for a while. hehe.. They say detonation is bad, and I agree, but I've detonated hundreds of times pretty harshly and got nothing broken.

Changing my clutch also made a difference. My oem clutch was shuddering and slipping despite so few miles, and I replaced it with a Valeo and resurfaced the flywheel a couple of years ago. I think I have a thread on it here or the other place. A smooth clutch and flywheel will have a smoother engagement and help out at stops. I have since removed that plastic wedge I made on the pedal because I saw that my ultragauge registered a difference in pedal position with it in there vs without, even though rpms didn't change.

Forgot to mention that when you start stalling a lot at lights, an ecu reset will help. Disconnect the negative battery terminal for a few minutes and reconnect. Watch how it will be a while before it stalls again. This is because ecu will be running richer until it learns its limits of leaning. You can make it relearn your driving style. That was also something that convinced me the stalling was mostly a lean fuel condition learned by the ecu by mostly easy-driving people like me.