Spluttering When Starting

[Chris81]

My Yaris has been a slight bit hesitant to start lately. It still fires into life within a couple of seconds of turning the key, but rather than the usual crank-crank-fire, it's more of a crank-crank-splutter-am i going to start or not-splutter-fire!

Car's a 2005 model, got a full Toyota service history, had spark plugs changed at last service a couple of months ago. Once it's started, if you drive it and stop then start again it fires up fine. Maybe a cold start problem? But it hasn't even been that cold lately so doesn't bode well for winter. Any ideas what it could be? I don't fancy taking it to a garage as like I say, it does start within a couple of seconds, just not as cleanly and crisply as it should do.

[alfiejts]

Sounds a long shot - but I got similar symptoms when the Battery started to fail in my 2000 Yaris.

It always used to kick into life immediately, but then on a cold day or after leaving it unused for a few days, it would do the same as you describe.

The reason was that the electric fuel pump needs loads of power to create the pressure needed to squirt the fuel into the engine and the starter motor uses loads of power too.

If the battery's starting to lose power, it might be struggling to provide enough power to the fuel pump to get the fuel to the right pressure as well as driving the starter motor.

An easy way to see if its this (at no cost) is to take it to your local car accessory shop and ask them to test the Battery for you.

[Chris81]

Thanks for the reply. I think I might clean up the Battery terminals first and see if that makes a difference. They don't look too bad but could do with a wire brush down and a re-grease. What electronics are likely to lose settings when I remove the Battery leads? Radio settings? I'm hoping it won't turn the standard alarm crazy!

[Richard Davies]

I once had a problem with my Yaris cold starting, sometimes it would splutter when I turned it over.

It was due to one of the Battery terminal clips working it's way a bit loose.

All I had to do was tighten it up with a spanner & it started smoothly almost every time after that.

[Chris81]

For the sake of completeness on this thread I had the Battery tested by a couple of reputable places and both agreed it needed replacing or charging. As I drive it plenty it should be charging itself up so I went for a new Battery in the end.

Funnily enough a Battery from Toyota was cheaper than Unipart or Halfords variants!

[HowardL]

For the sake of completeness on this thread I had the battery tested by a couple of reputable places and both agreed it needed replacing or charging. As I drive it plenty it should be charging itself up so I went for a new battery in the end.

Funnily enough a battery from Toyota was cheaper than Unipart or Halfords variants!

But, it isnt complete!....what about your problem?????

[Chris81]

I'll keep you posted. Hate speaking too soon on these things! The problem was intermittent anyway.