Corolla mechanic help?

Seems to have some good mechanical minds here. My 2009 corolla takes spells of a start/die cycle, five or six times then just cranks. Sits for a while starts right up runs with no issue. No lights or codes. 180000 miles, 4000 grand in hail damage so not really wanting to take it to shop for an unknown amount of troubleshooting. I’d like to have it as a backup to my Tacoma for the upcoming hail season so I can leave it under carport. Any ideas?

 

Sounds to me like the valve or valves that keep fuel pressure on the fuel system has gone bad and the fuel pressure is draining off.
This will cause hard starting issues. Think of it as your car has run out of gas and you are having to prime the fuel system every time you start it. Just my .02

 

Thanks for the tip

 

How current is your routine maintenance?

 

Thread jack! Looking at a 94, myselfMay have to create the great Corolla thread!

 

It’s up to date, runs great till it decides to act up. It starts within a few second then dies. It’s only done it twice but I’ve seldom driven it in last 6 months but have started it

 

Other than a water pump at 70000 miles been a great car, bought it for 60 mile commute, gas savings over the 2002 Tundra I had made most of the payment

 

Fuel pressure regulator? check or replace fuel filter

 

Maybe leaky fuel injectors

 

I agree with the theory that it's fuel related. It sounds like the engine is getting spark and that it wants to run, but fuel starvation will show the symptoms you described.
For what it's worth, I've had fuel pumps fail intermittently. In other words, they wouldn't just stop working one day, but would sporadically cut-out and kill the engine, and it would take several key cycles of the ignition to get them pumping again.

I'm not familiar with working on modern Toyotas, but is there a Schrader valve on the fuel line where you can hook up a pressure gauge to monitor the pressure in the system?

 

Fuel pump relay was a problem on one of my other vehicles

 

I’m not sure about the valve but you guys have given me enough info to do some exploring, I appreciate it

 

clean the throttle body