My Q cranks but doesn't start. Any thoughts???

21476 Views 50 Replies 17 Participants Last post by jzchen, 4 mo ago

corE

Discussion Starter · Dec 17, 2012

My girlfriend and I have just purchased another vehicle and left the Q sitting for a week and a half to 2 weeks, and when we decided to drive the Q again, it just cranks and cranks, but won't start.

I am in NO WAY a mechanic, so I have no clue what to do. I did try to jump it, but it wouldn't jump, and I left the cables on the battery while the truck was running for a little while, and still nothing.

The battery seems to be fine, from what I can tell, and doesn't seem to be dragging.

Am I missing something? Is there a fuel shut-off, of some sort, or does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks, in advance.

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Engineer_Boo

· #41 · Feb 14, 2014

mistergib said:
I take it you didn't read all of this thread.... From what you posted, you didn't do what I found to be what worked when this happens. Though this remedy sounds contrary to what you should do on a fuel injected motor, it seems to work. You should just get in and hold the accelerator pedal to the floor, (but no pumping the pedal), and start cranking.... it should then start firing and then finally start up. This has worked for me and several others.....

Oh I did try that and it gave me a couple of sounds like it was going to turn over....but never did.

When I get home, I'll try starting it without touching the gas pedal at all. (If no luck, I'll put the pedal to the floor...and if no luck, she's getting starting fluid!)

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mistergib

· #42 · Feb 14, 2014 (Edited)

Engineer_Boo said:
Oh I did try that and it gave me a couple of sounds like it was going to turn over....but never did.
When I get home, I'll try starting it without touching the gas pedal at all. (If no luck, I'll put the pedal to the floor...and if no luck, she's getting starting fluid!)

I doubt that will work and starting fluid will probably not work either, might even make it worse? When doing what I said to do earlier, while its turning over, it will give you a few intermittent sounds(firing) like it wants to start but doesn't....just keep turning it over without stopping, it will start within 30 seconds....you just gave up too soon....really. ****** I believe this to be a very peculiar glitch with our Q's that only occurs when specific conditions are created. This makes it almost impossible to be able to locate and fix the cause of the problem.****** Its happened to me only once. I now believe that during the initial "cold start", if you keep the key in the "start" position a split second longer to insure that the motor has started before releasing it, it will keep this from happening...why, I don't know. I think it has something to do with the computer control of the fuel injection during the ignition and only during the initial cold start?

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Joeparaski

· #43 · Feb 14, 2014

Don't bother with the starting fluid...it will start when you get home.

Joe

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Engineer_Boo

· #44 · Feb 15, 2014

Well, it did not start right up when I got home...and I could hear the little motorcycle battery start to lose power so I stomped the gas pedal and let her rip...she finally did start up...but it wasn't easy.

Piece of shit! I wonder if there's a fix for this with Toyota??

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mistergib

· #45 · Feb 15, 2014 (Edited)

That's what I said to do....put her to the floor and keep the starter cranking. You will hear it try to start a few times and then it will start, within 30 seconds....everybody that has had this happen did this and got it started by doing what I said above. Again, to avoid this happening again, when you go out to do the initial cold start of the day, keep the key in the start position for a split second longer until you know it has started. This is some rare, weird glitch having to do with the computer controlled fuel injection.....very difficult to diagnose and fix, if not impossible? Mine has only done this that one time, not again since I changed the way I start it.... If anybody has a better work-around, I'm all ears.......

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Engineer_Boo

· #46 · Feb 15, 2014

Thanks, Mistergib! It's been sitting for a couple of hours so I just went out to see how it started and this one was normal. (I'm letting it idle for a bit to get the battery recharged.)

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mistergib

· #47 · Feb 15, 2014

Engineer_Boo said:
Thanks, Mistergib! It's been sitting for a couple of hours so I just went out to see how it started and this one was normal. (I'm letting it idle for a bit to get the battery recharged.)

Now that you made it thru the glitch, go back to the normal starting method with no accelerator pedal, but still stay in the habit of keeping the key in the start position for that split second longer to make sure the motor has started.....hopefully you have seen the last of that glitch.

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iQ514

· #48 · Feb 16, 2014

Countless cars behave the same way... such as below.
First time I've experienced phenomenom was a 2001 4-cyl Saturn.
Simply do not move a car a few feet to shut it off afterwards on a cold-start rich mixture (either carbureted of fuel-injected)

yaris was flooded this morning....wouldn't start - Toyota Yaris Forums - Ultimate Yaris Enthusiast Site

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mistergib

· #49 · Feb 16, 2014 (Edited)

Though I wasn't aware of the Yaris's, I agree with you 100%, (except for the older carb'd cars since they would have automatic chokes), where our fuel injected Q's, and the aforementioned Yaris's, have their fuel controlled by the cars computer.......if you go back in this thread and read my first posting of it happening to me, which is Posting#22, you will see that's exactly how mine happened. It has to be a glitch in the computer controlled fuel supply of the fuel injection system happening on the initial cold start of the day. (Also, take note that it only seems to happen to Q's located in the cold climate areas of the country.) At least I figured out a work-around for it to both get it started, and hopefully, to keep it from happening again. Time will tell....?

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Savagew0lves

· #50 · 4 mo ago

THIS HAPPENED TO ME TOO.
2014 iQ - over 130,000 miles (can’t remember the exact number and it’s cold out there).
Thursday afternoon I ran outside (temp outside was right at 32), started it and moved it to the end of the driveway so my husband had room to get out around me and then shut it off.
Went out there the next night to leave for work (also a 32 night) and nothing. Just cranked and cranked and every once in a while it’d sputter like it was about to start. But it wouldn’t.
Had my mom come take me to work. Tried it again the next morning. No start. I had my mom's car, so every morning when I got off work I’d try to start it, but it wouldn’t start. Total of three mornings. I even tried to jump it. Had a full tank of gas. I bought some Heet, thinking maybe the rapid temp changes lately had caused a buildup of water from condensation.
Still no start.
Tried to see if I could hear the fuel pump hum before starting it and I couldn’t, so I assumed the pump was bad. So I online I went, looking for a new fuel pump.
I came to this forum to find out what I had to do to change the fuel pump. Then when I got here, I was like, hey we’ll wait a second.. Let’s see if there’s anything about what it’s doing.
Found this thread and I was like that sounds exactly like what mine is doing. So I tried it. AND IT WORKED!!
———
I was scared that cranking it for so long would kill the battery or damage the starter.
To combat the battery thing, I had my mom's car hooked up to it with jumper cables. I don’t know what I’d do to avoid destroying the starter doing this. Or would the starter even be at risk??

I got it to start once, but as it started, the RPMs rocketed up (because my foot was on the gas) and it hit the red lines and I got scared so I ripped my foot off the pedal. As soon as I took my foot off the pedal the RPMs dropped and it immediately died again.
And my mom was like, well take your foot off slower, you goof, and BOOM, that did the trick.
Bitty sputtered a little and had an absolutely horrendous smell coming from her tail pipe. Smells like regular burning gas mixed with something else? (Might have been the Heet? Maybe?)

So possible new step to the fix: once you get it to start, remove your foot from the pedal slowly. 😅

Man, I was about to buy a whole new fuel pump, because my dumba$$ flooded the engine. Lmfao
And it STILL wouldn’t have fixed the problem.

This thread saved my a$$. You guys freaking rock.

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jzchen

· #51 · 4 mo ago

Check your coolant and oil levels, make sure they aren’t going down.

I just started after maybe a month. It took a 2nd attempt it did not start the first time. This time though I had left the battery connected the whole time, (because I’m not afraid of draining the LiFePO4 battery that I put in). Before that I’d disconnect the neg side and put the battery on a charger/maintainer if I was going to leave it over 1 week.

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