Hard Start

Seems like more and more evidence of a fuel pump issue. Too bad I'm not under the recall though!

 

I don’t understand the description of your problem. What do you mean by “catch”? Are you referring to the starter motor not engaging the flywheel? If so this has nothing to do with the fuel pump.

If instead you are referring to lack of combustion in the engine cylinders (typically referred to as firing or popping), then this could be caused by many things including the fuel pump.

 

The starter turns over, but the engine doesn't always engage normally. Sometimes the starter keeps turning and turning and the engine finally turns on. If that's what you mean by flywheel/engine engaging....then yes!

 

Are you sure by "but the engine doesn't always engage normally" you don't mean that the engine does not form combustion in the cylinders (i.e. fire, pop off, etc)?

Maybe you could upload a recording off the sound.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_combustion_engine

 

That may be what is or what is not happening....I am not a certified mechanic! The starter turns over more rotations than it normally does and at times, the engine limps to fire up when it does finally start up.

 

My MT has been doing that since new, I noticed that right away. Just a quirk.

All my vehicles started way faster than my taco.

 

Assuming the OP is just saying the engine rotates slightly more than normal before the engine starts firing, I would say that it's nothing unusual for any car. The number of engine revolutions before an engine starts is not a constant, albeit new cars are very consistent compared to old cars. If it's consistently excessively different to the point that I am annoyed, I might be concerned.

 

The the engine fires up , it is in Port injection mode, then it goes to Both Mode for 25 sec., then drops to Port.
Here are pressure values for 1st second of the engine run.



and this is how long Port injections are spraying just before the engine fire event. It seems you may have Port injection issues, which lead to a faulty Lower pressure pump, etc.

 

I’d get it to one!
It’ll probably end up saving you time and money,,, getting it fixed right the first time, rather playing swap-a-part

 

I vote for pump or filter….

 

At work, we call that Swapnostics

 

my buddy (a veteran, lead tech) called the practice "carpet bombing", he was the guy that would pull good used customer parts out of the trash can, and ask his coworker, "who's gonna pay for this? It's not bad, replacing it still didn't fix the problem, and you're headed back to parts to try another. Oh,, ,not you,, you don't give AF"

 

A very questionable guy who worked next to me at the dealer would get into fights with the parts department for not lending him a part to try and/or would fire the parts cannon then just say he couldn't duplicate the concern

On topic though, try key cycling the ignition twice with a 2 second pause at the on position then immediately start it and see if it's better. If it is then you have a fuel system problem.

Don't forget to post a video of your concern

 

That”s good information.
Thanks for sharing.

 

An update on this: I'm 99% sure my problem stemmed from a bad tank of gas. Once I ran out that tank and filled up elsewhere, the problem has not recurred and its been about a week. I'll continue to monitor it, thanks for the replies everyone.

 

My wife's Corolla had a similar hard starting problem after sitting a week and a half in sub-freezing temps. Running fine now after getting the bad gas out of the lines.

 

Thanks for the update

Hopefully that's all it was and the problem is solved. Maybe throw some gasoline antifreeze in the next couple fill ups to make sure there is no water in the tank.