Dear Auto Gurus, I bought a 1996 Toyota Camry (automatic transmission) four months ago and since then I have discovered the car has a peculiar problem. I observed that whenever the vehicle's engine is cold and you start the car and for whatever reason, you turn off the engine, the car will not be able to start except you leave it for a long while like 30mins before it will be able to start again. What am saying is this; you are about to go to work and you start your car (it starts), then you remember you have forgotten something upstairs, you turn off the engine, run upstairs, get whatever it is you forgot, come down, attempt to start the car again and it won't start.

Again, if you drive the car to the office which takes about 25mins, (by this time the engine is hot) you can turn off/start the car as many times as you wish and the car will respond. I was told it's an electrical fault and I have taken it to three different people, to no avail.

I must add that this car became a source of terrible dissapointment and embarrasment until I accidentally stumbled on a temporal solution. I discovered that whenever the car "passes out" on me, I could start it by attemting to start the car and at the same time trying to push the gear lever to drive(using two hands now in other to be able to do it simultaneously). I am not comfortable with this method hence the quest for solution.

Or I could start the car, leave it on for 15 to 20mins for the engine to heat. Again this method is not welcome given the removal of fuel subsidy and time wasting.

Please auto gurus I need your contributions. Is there any negative consequuences am to expect in view of the my temporal solution in paragraph 2? If anybody is experincing a similar problem please feel free to share it here.

Bros. Check the cold "start sensor" I feel ur pain. Mine started doing exactly the opposite the day i took it to car wash. After throwing parts at it, the disappointment and disgrace, It was finally solved when I changed the disributor bought at the cost of N6000.

Distributor,coil and brainbox it happened to me once

Martini101: Bros. Check the cold "start sensor" I feel ur pain. Mine started doing exactly the opposite the day i took it to car wash. After throwing parts at it, the disappointment and disgrace, It was finally solved when I changed the disributor bought at the cost of N6000.

You said yours started doing the opposite, please how do you mean? Again can your solution work with my car?

ado ok: Distributor,coil and brainbox it happened to me once

Pardon my asking, is it either distributor, coil or brainbox that is the problem or do you mean all the mentioned items are faulty? Thanks.

Hei my brother. I must confess am not too sure.

1. Does d car jerk?

2. Have u ever serviced d injector

3. Check d injector to make sure all d components, are properly fitted. No hose big or small is cut?

4. How does the car run on d road?

Have you diagnosed the car. If not why?

Okay i have seen this on a similar car, from canada all the mechanic did was to completely remove the thermostat and all things was good.

Get your Diagnostic Kit now for your laptop only N20K 070*6 357 8028. works on ALL CARS and tells you how to Repair the car.

chiebube: Hei my brother. I must confess am not too sure.

1. Does d car jerk?

2. Have u ever serviced d injector

3. Check d injector to make sure all d components, are properly fitted. No hose big or small is cut?

4. How does the car run on d road?

Hey bro. The car does not jerk and av not serviced the injector. The car runs smoothly. Thanks for your concern.

Cargoed: Have you diagnosed the car. If not why?

Okay i have seen this on a similar car, from canada all the mechanic did was to completely remove the thermostat and all things was good.

Get your Diagnostic Kit now for your laptop only N20K 070*6 357 8028. works on ALL CARS and tells you how to Repair the car.

the thermostat has since been removed and the engine check light is not on. Pardon my ignorance, how does this diagnostic kit work? Can you explain further in a layman's term. Thanks

US-AutoBuy:
Don't waste your money. The best guess i could think of at the moment is something called "COLD START VALVE"

Its job is to tell the brainbox/injectors to supply more petrol cos the car is cold. And less when warm.

That is why you have no problem starting the car after driving it.

Find below the picture where its located and what it looks like

Good luck out there

Sound reasonable. I will check this out. Thanks.

Auto gurus,
pls also help me out. I have a Volkswagen Passat V6 2.8, Auto transmission. The problem is that in the morning, I have to drive it for up to one or two minutes before the trasmission engages. Before this delayed engagement, the car moves slowly with high noise until engagement.
Any help pls!!!Any advice is welcome

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Thank you

Find someone dat hv d same model with u and borrow his brainbox and check. D problem is d brainbox, it can be repair if maybe d ic inside hv burn or u can change it complete bt to be sure borrow someone's own and test. Again kickstarter can gv dis kind of prblm

Always go with hot water in your car to sprinkle on the engine .

means: Auto gurus,
pls also help me out. I have a Volkswagen Passat V6 2.8, Auto transmission. The problem is that in the morning, I have to drive it for up to one or two minutes before the trasmission engages. Before this delayed engagement, the car moves slowly with high noise until engagement.
Any help pls!!!Any advice is welcome

The sure solution is to change the throttle body. I experienced it once. If you do not change it now, it may affect your gear and you won't like that.

Nigerian car owners will never stop to amaze me. Making suggestions without understanding the issue with Op car. One even suggested the removal of the engine Cooling system thermostat, which has nothing to do with the hard starting issue with the vehicle been discussed. I wonder.

Meerkat,

The symptom, as you described, your car is giving means is having improper air/fuel mixture. Usually, such symptom is caused by flooding (Too much fuel injected into the combustion chambers with less air to match the mixture and that will flood the spark plugs, preventing them from sparking/igniting the mixed compressed air/fuel and creating power stroke (explosion) in the chambers. Yes, it starts after some minutes of non-clanking because the flooded fuel has dried up in the cylinders or has washed down the cylinders and found itself in the crankcase, which will be diluting the engine oil in the sump. If you doubt me, pull out your oil dipstick and smell it (the oil). Come back and tell us if it smells fuel or if your oil guage has gone up or risen beyond the last level you left it.

It could also be a wrong connection or loose connection between the CTS, cold-start injector & the ECU. The symptom sounds like purely an injection issue. The people that have suggested the cold-start injector replacement are on the right track. But you still need to ascertain if the cold start injector is really faulty or the culprit. You need to be sure that the signal from the cold start injector or the CTS (Coolant Temperature Sensor) to the ECU (Electronic Control Unit) is not distorted somewhere between (the harness).

Please, leave your Injectors alone, they have nothing to do with the issue. Rather, you can check the wire from the ECU to the Injectors, to be sure the injectors are getting ground pulse from the ECU, when the car refuses to start. If the injectors are not getting the ground pulse from the ECU, check the wire continuity and also the ECU wiring connector for corrosion.

Will get back to you when am through with work. Remove the thermostat Indeed!

Ikenna.

it might look funny. Change your battery.

@op, pls dont be offended- how often do you service your car? I once had such experience to the extent that i have get an extra batery or waited till sun light because it during rainning season like this, but once started runs well. On the long run after hearing different voices and trials, it was only regular service and change of engine oil on time that solved it all.

@OP you have been told the truth.Mine also had similar issue anout 2years back and I changed the COLD START SWITCH and ever sinve its been wonderful.Infact I travel with the ride alot.I bought it for about 1,500 Naira then it should not be more than 2,000 tops.Just go get a honest mechanic to help you check LADIPO auto market thats if u reside in Lagos.

Poster,

I had similar problem,Mine is when i drive the car for a while and switch off the ignition, it would not start until 15 to 20 mins later. I couldn't switch off engine at filling stations and it finally killed my battery. The solution is the ignition coil, my rewire told me the ignition coil was damaged and changing it solved the issue. Try that and get back to me. Scanning it was a bit of problem because the scanning port was not the regular OBD2 rectangular socket, it has a round socket similar to OBD1 so to get an adapter for it was difficult.

Ikenna351: Nigerian car owners will never stop to amaze me. Making suggestions without understanding the issue with Op car. One even suggested the removal of the engine Cooling system thermostat, which has nothing to do with the hard starting issue with the vehicle been discussed. I wonder.

Meerkat,

The symptom, as you described, your car is giving means is having improper air/fuel mixture. Usually, such symptom is caused by flooding (Too much fuel injected into the combustion chambers with less air to match the mixture and that will flood the spark plugs, preventing them from sparking/igniting the mixed compressed air/fuel and creating power stroke (explosion) in the chambers. Yes, it starts after some minutes of non-clanking because the flooded fuel has dried up in the cylinders or has washed down the cylinders and found itself in the crankcase, which will be diluting the engine oil in the sump. If you doubt me, pull out your oil dipstick and smell it (the oil). Come back and tell us if it smells fuel or if your oil guage has gone up or risen beyond the last level you left it.

It could also be a wrong connection or loose connection between the CTS, cold-start injector & the ECU. The symptom sounds like purely an injection issue. The people that have suggested the cold-start injector replacement are on the right track. But you still need to ascertain if the cold start injector is really faulty or the culprit. You need to be sure that the signal from the cold start injector or the CTS (Coolant Temperature Sensor) to the ECU (Electronic Control Unit) is not distorted somewhere between (the harness).

Please, leave your Injectors alone, they have nothing to do with the issue. Rather, you can check the wire from the ECU to the Injectors, to be sure the injectors are getting ground pulse from the ECU, when the car refuses to start. If the injectors are not getting the ground pulse from the ECU, check the wire continuity and also the ECU wiring connector for corrosion.

Will get back to you when am through with work. Remove the thermostat Indeed!

Ikenna.

Ikenna thanks for the insight, will definitely give it a shot

Ikenna351: Nigerian car owners will never stop to amaze me. Making suggestions without understanding the issue with Op car. One even suggested the removal of the engine Cooling system thermostat, which has nothing to do with the hard starting issue with the vehicle been discussed. I wonder.

Meerkat,

The symptom, as you described, your car is giving means is having improper air/fuel mixture. Usually, such symptom is caused by flooding (Too much fuel injected into the combustion chambers with less air to match the mixture and that will flood the spark plugs, preventing them from sparking/igniting the mixed compressed air/fuel and creating power stroke (explosion) in the chambers. Yes, it starts after some minutes of non-clanking because the flooded fuel has dried up in the cylinders or has washed down the cylinders and found itself in the crankcase, which will be diluting the engine oil in the sump. If you doubt me, pull out your oil dipstick and smell it (the oil). Come back and tell us if it smells fuel or if your oil guage has gone up or risen beyond the last level you left it.

It could also be a wrong connection or loose connection between the CTS, cold-start injector & the ECU. The symptom sounds like purely an injection issue. The people that have suggested the cold-start injector replacement are on the right track. But you still need to ascertain if the cold start injector is really faulty or the culprit. You need to be sure that the signal from the cold start injector or the CTS (Coolant Temperature Sensor) to the ECU (Electronic Control Unit) is not distorted somewhere between (the harness).

Please, leave your Injectors alone, they have nothing to do with the issue. Rather, you can check the wire from the ECU to the Injectors, to be sure the injectors are getting ground pulse from the ECU, when the car refuses to start. If the injectors are not getting the ground pulse from the ECU, check the wire continuity and also the ECU wiring connector for corrosion.

Will get back to you when am through with work. Remove the thermostat Indeed!

Ikenna.

Ikenna thanks for the insight, will definitely give it a shot

@OP. THIS IS the exact solution to ur problem.
Kakatazz(m):@OP you have been told the truth.Mine also had similar issue anout 2years back and I changed the COLD START SWITCH and ever sinve its been wonderful.Infact I travel with the ride alot.I bought it for about 1,500 Naira then it should not be more than 2,000 tops.Just go get a honest mechanic to help you check LADIPO auto market thats if u reside in Lagos.


This is what i meant by the exact thing my car did.
I had similar problem,Mine is when i drive the car for a while and switch off the ignition, it would not start until 15 to 20 mins later. I couldn't switch off engine at filling stations and it finally killed my battery. The solution is the ignition coil, my rewire told me the ignition coil was damaged and changing it solved the issue. Try that and get back to me. Scanning it was a bit of problem because the scanning port was not the regular OBD2 rectangular socket, it has a round socket similar to OBD1 so to get an adapter for it was difficult.

Oga Ikenna. No disrespect but we re talking from experience here.

US-AutoBuy:
Don't waste your money. The best guess i could think of at the moment is something called "COLD START VALVE"

Its job is to tell the brainbox/injectors to supply more petrol cos the car is cold. And less when warm.

That is why you have no problem starting the car after driving it.

Find below the picture where its located and what it looks like

Good luck out there

.


OP. This guy just hit the nail on the head with the picture description. Goodluck. Dont forget to come and tell us when it is rectified!

please kindly take your car for check up. please do not listen to hear say. many problems can lead to this. i know over 20 problems that can lead to this, i will never advise to do do trial and error. go to genuine cetre to run the scan. thanks.

my-friend:
please kindly take your car for check up. please do not listen to hear say. many problems can lead to this. i know over 20 problems that can lead to this, i will never advise to do do trial and error. go to genuine cetre to run the scan. thanks.

[color=#990000][/color]Chill.
We re talking from the exact experience. "Cold Switch " is the problem

Martini101: @OP. THIS IS the exact solution to ur problem.
Kakatazz(m):@OP you have been told the truth.Mine also had similar issue anout 2years back and I changed the COLD START SWITCH and ever sinve its been wonderful.Infact I travel with the ride alot.I bought it for about 1,500 Naira then it should not be more than 2,000 tops.Just go get a honest mechanic to help you check LADIPO auto market thats if u reside in Lagos.


This is what i meant by the exact thing my car did.
I had similar problem,Mine is when i drive the car for a while and switch off the ignition, it would not start until 15 to 20 mins later. I couldn't switch off engine at filling stations and it finally killed my battery. The solution is the ignition coil, my rewire told me the ignition coil was damaged and changing it solved the issue. Try that and get back to me. Scanning it was a bit of problem because the scanning port was not the regular OBD2 rectangular socket, it has a round socket similar to OBD1 so to get an adapter for it was difficult.

Oga Ikenna. No disrespect but we re talking from experience here.

None taken.

Still, you are wrong. Experience? So you are basing your knowledge on fixing an EFI engine with the above posts you quoted? Bro, you still have a lot of catch up to do.

Don't get yourself confused with how a Fuel Carbureted engine works and how EFI engine also work. A fuel carbureted engine vehicle, with black smoke issue, can be attributed to a carburetor issue. Servicing, washing, or replacing the carburetor is all that will be needed to fix the problem. A black smoke issue with an EFI vehicle can be caused by so many sensors or components, if faulty, even a problem with harness (ECU - Engine wires) will give the same symptom. Both (Carburetor & EFI) with black smoke issues, means that they are suffering from improper air/fuel mixtures. But the method of diagnosis of both are not the same. In EFI, there is no guess work, unlike the carburetor. Every sensor, every engine component, every connection (harness) must be 100% according to factory, for the engine to work efficiently, as designed.

You may have a black smoke problem with your EFI car today, you diagnosed and found oxygen sensor as the culprit. You replace the o2 sensor and the black smoke stops. And the problem (black smoke) starts again, maybe, the upper week. So because you have experienced it before, you just quickly dash to the market and buy the o2 sensor because it must be the culprit? You still dey far guy! If the car CTS fails, it will cause the same black smoke. If AFM (Air Flow meter) fails, it will give the same black smoke symptom. If the FPR (Fuel Pressure Regulator) fails, it will cause the same black smoke. If IAT (Intake Air Temperature sensor) fails, it will cause the same symptom. If the engine suddenly develops vacuum leak, you will get the same black smoke. I can go on and on.

My point? A lot of EFI components, if malfunctioning, can give a similar symptom. Thats why the OBD II is there to eliminate and narrow it down for you, the culprit. Otherwise, it means you will have to test individually, all components that can give such symptom when failed, to determine one that is faulty.

Martini, read my earlier post carefully. I never disregareded the posts that suggested the cold start injectors as the culprit. But they failed to realised that the component is one of the EFI engine components that can give such symptom, if failed. A rich mixture can cause a hard start. A lean mixture can do the same. A failing Ignition module, when its hot, can cause a hard start (though, that's not the issue here). A lot of EFI components, other than the cold start injector, can cause hard start. The problem could actually be the cold start injector, but it needs to be tested to be sure its the culprit before throwing money away in replacing what isnt faulty. Unless you have a donor car or where you can borrow one for testing, you can swap in the borrowed one to know if there will be any change or an improvement.

You make it sound as if all EFI vehicles have that cold start injector. Mine doesnt. The CTS in mine does a dual function.i.e. it also does the work of the cold start injector. Just like not every EFI vehicle have camshaft position sensor. The CKP (Crankshaft Position Sensor) in such vehicles also do the work of the Camshaft sensor (dual function).

like I always say, try and understand the working of an EFI engine. Only that can help you in diagnosing one.

Ikenna.

Please Moderators, we need you guys to move this thread to the new cartalk section. Someone needs it there. Besides, it will be a waste here. Please!

Ikenna.

Oga Ikenna!, Ikenna!!, Ikenna!!!

How many times did I call u?

Pls be more cautious when u are responding to other people's suggestions especially when they proffer suggestions to people's car problems.

U can diplomatically tell them its wrong instead of making them look like 'MUMU'.

Pls I hope u won't be offended.

Ikenna! Ikenna!!! Ikenna!!!

Next time I will ask ur primary school teacher to beat u.

But on a serious note, its not funny.

Pls take note