Intermittent starting problem - 2014 RAV4 2L d4d

[Andy Hayward]

Hope someone can help with a intermittent staring issue I have.  Here is the history and what happened.

-car went in for service and MOT with local Toyota garage September this year - no major issues and car returned.  Rear tyres and brakes replaced.

-a couple of days later did a short 2 mile drive, parked up and returned to car say 30 minutes later. pressed start button and dash lights came on as usual but no start.  not even an attempt so starter motor not turning and car silent

- tried again after an hour and fired up as normal

- above has since occurred 5-6 times since in a 4 month period, really annoying as I never know when it will happen - most worryingly was happened on the foreshore of the village I live in when the tide was coming in.

- car has been back to Toyota and they say no fault code.  When they have the car it is firing up fine so I guess they need to see it on an occasion it is playing up with is rare.

 

What bugs me is it never did this before it went in for it's routine service.  I think the fault must be electrical as the car does not try to start.  Battery is good and was only replaced by Toyota the year before.  when the problem occurs and I press the Botton again only some dash lights go off and have to press again to get them all off.  The problem does not correlate to parking on a slope or certain weather conditions.

Any ideas what I could do aside of Toyota seeing it when it has the fault.  The local Toyota dealer has been helpful but no answer and I cannot see a similar story from others on this forum.

Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

 

Andy

 

 

[RAV4-D4D]

Hi Andy - having experienced the hot start issue with the Mk2, I feel you pain with this. A few suggestions below but I'm afraid I can't offer any definitive solutions.

 

First, you might like to check if the immobiliser is deactivating. I don't know what your car would do if the immobiliser wasn't deactivating, but lighting up but not turning the engine sounds plausible. Maybe try using the spare key for a while and/or checking the Battery in your key if it's replaceable? 

 

Secondly, it does sound a little like the hot start issue that often occurs on the MK2 and although your car is much newer maybe there's a link? Certainly my car didn't even turn over at it's worse, it just did exactly as you described in terms of lighting up but engine not turning over. So, as you have a hunch it's an electrical fault then it may be worth just checking/cleaning connections in the engine bay. I wouldn't expect a service to require any electrical connections to be undone but you never know something unexpected may have happened.

 

Beyond that I'm not sure I can offer anything more useful but I wish you good luck and if you find the cause please share it on the forum!

 

 

 

[satts67]

A couple of things here:

 

[Andy Hayward]

Many thanks RAV4 D4D and Satts67, your advice is most helpful.

The more I think about it I am inclined to think it is a immobiliser fault, so will just try locking with the key and not engaging the immobiliser if I am in any area I would rather not get stuck.  Holding the start Button down did randomly work on one occasion although I did not do exactly as the UTube guide suggested.

Would my local Toyota garage be able to spot any problems with the immobiliser unit when the fault is not happening if I direct them this way?  I did have a problem a couple of years ago with central locking which was locking doors and the key not opening them which were fixed under warranty.

Not sure what the 'hot start' problem is but when this has occurred on some occasions the engine has been reasonably cold.  I did see (I think) something on the forum about the starter motor getting hot due to another engine component affecting it so not sure if this is what you are referring to.

If I get a definitive answer I will share it here.

 

 

 

[RAV4-D4D]

Hi Andy

Yes the hot start issue is the one you refer to but doesn't sound like it's that.

I don't know much about the working of an immobiliser, I suppose there is a possibility the engine management system logs attempts to start the car when it is immobilised and maybe a Toyota garage could read that but I wouldn't bet on it. Sadly I suspect their advice would be to replace or to spend a lot of time/money testing and trying to diagnose.

If you can do as you suggest and lock the car without the immobiliser activating that sounds like a good first test, it may be a case of methodically testing different things eg keys etc and trying go to isolate the problem. I appreciate that isn't ideal if it means you're stranded in places from time to time!