2003 Corolla Starting Issue - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Jeff1981 · 10-26-2011, 08:21 PM

Let me start off by saying I'm a longtime lurker here but just now got around to registering for an account. I've really learned a lot about my wife's Corolla and been able to fix a few issues over the last few years with information I've found on here. I've always been a Volkswagen guy but my next car will probably be a new Corolla in the next year or so.

My wife has a 2003 Corolla S and a potential starting issue has me stumped and I've read through a lot of posts but still not sure what's going on. I say potential because I'm not sure if it's really an issue or just a random fluke that I'm over thinking.

I don't drive it much but I've noticed for a while now that it takes a bit of cranking (3-4 seconds or so) to get it started usually especially when cold. Definitely longer than my GTI. She says it's done this since new though but I don't recall it taking this long in the past. On her drive home from work today it started fine when she left but when she stopped at Target on the way home she cranked it and it wouldn't start and then on the second try it fired up after a few seconds. (According to her at least but she's less than helpful on describing how long she cranked it.) On her second stop on the way home it started up like it normally does with it's several second crank.

When she got home I checked the battery cables, they're clean and tight, and also ran it up to Advance Auto for them to check the 18 month old battery which tested fine. The car is at 106,000 miles, has new spark plugs within the past month, and cranks strong.

From the posts I've read it seems to be the starter (but it cranks strong and just takes a while to catch) or the fuel pump/fuel pressure. (But there's no hesitation in acceleration which to me at least would rule this out.) My father-in-law suggested pulling the starter off to check the teeth for wear so that will be a task for this weekend. Is there anything else I could check that would cause a slow start?

ems · 10-27-2011, 11:48 AM

If the car is cranking it's not the starter. When was the last time you had a tune up?

TrdSpeed140 · 10-27-2011, 12:35 PM

it is possibly the fuel pump, there was a TSB about it a while back.

NozMonster · 10-28-2011, 07:31 AM

A bad intake manifold gasket could also be causing this. This is a known issue and can be fixed with less than $20 and 30 minutes of your time.