UserGuest_134

Hellos, folks

My xb doesn't start well sometimes. when i start the engine it usually crank for longer than normal, and sometimes when it ignites, the rpm rises somewhat in hesitance. my xb is completely stock.

here is the link to the actual video how my xb starts sometimes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urw-58RCRAA

(sorry for the camera shake, i had my arm on the steering wheel with the camera)

it had this problem for about an year, and it wasn't very frequent back then, but now i'm noticing that this kind of start happens around 6 or 7 of 10 starts. I actually had to cold start my car several time to get it on the video (because the problem occurs randomly).

I've had this almost every condition. warm weather, cold weather, cold engine, warm engine, full tank of gas, and almost empty gas tank... it just happens no matter what condition the car is in.

I first thought it could be the spark plugs, so i replaced the spark plugs, but the problem still exists, and i've reset the ecu to see if it makes any difference, but no result.

The dealer said they probably have to re-program the fuel map or replace the fuel pump (which they said it would cost around $1200), but they couldn't pin-point what could be causing this problem. that's why i'm posting this on scionlife to see if any other xb owners encountered this problem.

any idea?
any suggestion would be appreciated, thanks

daneisthegreatest

iTrader: (1)

wow you actually got it to do it on camera. I've been having this problem for about 3 years now. I know people that have this problem also and the dealership that i went to and the dealership that my buddy went to both could not recreate the problem so they didnt do crap. heres a link to the thread i created back in 07

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/sho...ing+start+time

Mouse

Thats great that you were able to get an intermittent issue documented like that.
It almost makes me wonder if it could be the way the fuel system is priming at startup.... because if it were a flat out fuel delivery issue, then it would either run like crap or not start at all.
Definitely take that video clip to the dealer or shop with you.
GL with it and let us know how it turns out.

UserGuest_134

I have shown this video to a technician at my dealership knowing that I would not be able to recreate problem there. the answer I got from the dealership after showing the video is the possible problem of fuel mapping or fuel pump. I'm surprised to hear other guys in this forum have encountered this problem. I've also seen a Toyota matrix with this problem on youtube. Seems like this problem is quite common?
it's also strange that the car starts like that intermittently.

13edge

Had that same problem on a beams motor, and it was the fuel pump. $90 later and it was fixed, but I'd really bug the dealer some more. Hate to throw money at 'possible' stuff.

How many miles? Was that 51k I saw in the video?

Zman

Out of thousands of starts, mine only hesitated once. I had to hold the key over for 10 seconds.

I'm sorry to hear this from you guys.

UserGuest_134

Yeah it's got around 51k miles but the problem started well before that. how much is to replace a fuel pump? If it's not a hard job to replace, I'll give it a try.

MadMike550

fuel pumps arent that hard to replace...run it low on fuel before you start


I've never had that problem with mine though..good luck gettin it fixed

bbstacker7072

That is what mine was doing. Replaced the pump and all is well. Oh, it's best to have the tank full. The fumes are what explode. I had mine about four inches from the top. I also had ground wires attached and I had a grounding strap on my wrist. It may sound silly to some, but I'm not much on being burned alive.

mc1200s

I'll do better than a suggestion, I'll tell you the problem. Your camshaft position sensor is failing. I made the same video and went through the same crap with the dealer as you are. My car behaved in this manner for about 1-year before it failed completely. One day you attempt to start her up and she will just keep cranking.

Trust me, this is real common on our cars and it IS your problem. If you do a search you will likely find tons of information on your camshaft position sensor failure.
Thanks.

mc1200s

Had no idea this thread was so old. Whoops.

Reactor

This will not cause the problem described. Bad camshaft position sensor can only make CEL come on and cause you to loose some of high RPM power.

vintage42

Search for posts (not threads) using the words "camshaft position sensor", and there are several about "Car Won't Start".

Years ago when it was the fad to change to lightweight pulleys, in the process several people managed to damage their "VVT oil control valve", "camshaft position sensor", "camshaft timing oil control valve", or "camshaft position actuator circuit". I think these are all the same thing -- in any case, as I remember, the cars had starting problems. Here's a pix of the part from one post:

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x...halxb/vvti.jpg

Reactor

Camshaft position sensor is on the side of the cylinder head opposite to where the control valve is. They are two completely different parts.

vintage42

Could a problem with either one of them affect how the car starts?

Reactor

The valve could. But not the sensor. ECU will recognize bad sensor within few seconds and stop trying to adjust the camshaft. That would put the cam in zero advance (least valve overlap)- you get the smoothest idle that way.
But stuck OCV can let the cam be advanced when it doesn't need to be- that may cause hard starts and rough idle.