But one out of 20 times it just won’t start. Here’s the story: 2001 Toyota Sienna van, 100K miles. I turn the key and get spark and a couple hundred rpm from the starter and it drops to zero and dies.
When the key is turned to ‘on’ I hear a low “brrrrp”, which could be the fuel pump kicking on, but I don’t know for sure. Then most of the time it cranks strong and fires up to 800 rpm and idles steady.
I noticed the problem is slightly more frequent when very low on gas. Once or twice it started but barely could hold idle, it somehow sustained a 200 rpm idle.
Problem is I can’t predict when it will happen so can’t replicate the problem for a mechanic. The dealer said they could try to diagnose it for $90, but if they can’t reproduce the problem, they just give it back and I’m out $90.
Please weigh in if you have a theory.
thanks!
The noise you hear when first turning on the key could be the high pressure pump for the ABS, rather than the fuel pump. If the noise comes from under the hood, it’s the ABS. The fuel pump is inside the fuel tank, and any noise from it will come from the rear.
Try turning the key to “ON,” and waiting a few seconds before starting the engine. This will allow the fuel pump to fully pressurize the system before you start the engine, and may help with this intermittent problem.
The system may be losing fuel pressure over time as the vehicle sits idle. Is there any correlation between the starting difficulty and the time the van sits between drives?
The noise I hear comes from under the hood, so it’s the ABS pump. The technique of turning the key to “on” for a few seconds works pretty well when it fails to start.
I don’t have any hard facts to back it up, but it seems there is a correlation between how long it sits and those times it won’t start. The time that the gas gauge was on empty it clearly happened more often.
What keeps the fuel under pressure when it’s just sitting?
Sorry for the double post, I replied first by mistake before logging in so the one from anonymous is also me:
The noise I hear comes from under the hood, so it’s the ABS pump. The technique of turning the key to “on” for a few seconds works pretty well when it fails to start.
I don’t have any hard facts to back it up, but it seems there is a correlation between how long it sits and those times it won’t start. The time that the gas gauge was on empty it clearly happened more often.
What keeps the fuel under pressure when it’s just sitting?
Change the fuel filter before testing the fuel pressure and regulator. Acceleration and hill climbing (up-grades) performance could be lower because of lower fuel pressure.