Engine is hard starting

recheck your float height and whether the float actually floats or not. the alcohol in todays fuel may have eaten it up on the inside and it won't float any longer.check for a vacuum leak after you get back running. like a hose off or carb leaking at bottom. THis guide can help us.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/engine-cranks-excessively-before-starting

Please run down this guide and report back.

The car is a Corolla FX and is carbureted, if that makes any difference at all. It always will be able to turn all the dash lights and radio on, but almost every morning it will take a few minutes to get started. When trying to start it the engine will usually turn over several times repeatedly, and then I'll let it rest and turn the car completely off. It takes me about three or four rounds of this to finally get it started and keep it started. But usually, if I can get it started in the morning, I won't have much trouble with it for the rest of the day. Sometimes, especially if it has sat for a few days, when trying to start it in the morning, the engine won't turn over at all. However the lights still turn on and a jump start will get it going right away. I had the battery and starter tested and they were fine. The battery terminals are very clean. thank you.

If you to give it a jump it will fire up with no problem
you had the battery tested !
should have it tested 1st think in the morning and after it sat in the car all night
as you may have power drain over night causing the battery to weaken and spin the engine quick enough to fire

if the jump doesn’t help much check it for tune up and suspect carburetor need adjustment and check the choke too

Its a 1986 toyota corolla Sr5 hatchback 4cyl carburated. When its cold its hard to start and i notice that on the ground where my exhuast is its black on the ground and all around my exhaust is black too. Theirs also a really bad smell when im driving, when im just driving normally not flooring it its smells fine but when i speed up or slam on the gas it smells, catalytic converter? Also my car is leaking coolant i just havent been able to pinpoint it, i know it cant be the head gasket because the previous owner replaced that,and it leaks a lot, like a little puddle. just today i started my car to park in the garage so the car was on for mayb 5 mins i look under the car and its leaking coolant. Could it be the intake/exhaust gasket?
any help would be appreiciated, thanks.

You more than likely will have to rebuild or replace the carb. The rich exhaust has probably overheated the convertor and it will ne to be replaced.

The coolant can be coming from a hose, radiator, thermostat housing. On some Toyotas there is a hose from the waterpump to the thermostat housing that is under the ntake manifold and is hard to see. Try an inspection mirror.

thanks a bunch for the quick response im goin to clean off my exhaust and get a new cat and see if it still smells or leaves black stuff on my muffler
and for the carb im goin to buy a weber carb, pricey but good performance, as for the coolant leak i might just take it to a auto shop and ask them to pinpoint the source of the leak.

O one more question
test pipe or high flow catalyic converter?

Replace the convertor. Of course it is illegal to tamper with emmission devices and while you may not (now) have to pass a smog test or inspection to get your car tagged, that time is coming for everyone.

hey again one of my friends recommended i get my carb cleaned out by a mechanic or do it myself and i wouldnt have to replace it.

Hello,
My Corolla is having some truoble starting when the engine is warm. Two pumps of the gas pedal (carb. car) and it fires right up...when it's cold. When it's warm though it cranks and cranks and cranks and will finally chug to life, with a little help from me and the gas pedal. The plug wires are new within the last couple years, I'm going to replace the cap and rotor and the air filter is in good shape. What else should I be looking for. Again, this is a carburator car, not fuel injected. Thanks.

If, as you say, it has been runnung rich, that can cause the convertor to overheat.
The way to find out is to fix the carb, then have a backpressure test performed on the CAT. That will tell you if you have any restrictions.

Try spraying some starting fluid in car when it won't start, if it starts or runs for a few seconds, then either fuel pump or filter.

If it does not start or run a few seconds after the starting fluid, then ignition problem.
It sounds like a weak ignition, since when you pump gas, it squirts gas into engine via the accelerator pump on carb.
When hot you may be flodding engine due to weak spark.
When engine is hot, try flooring gas pedal once and hold to floor, this may help.

hey again, so i replaced the cat with a new one, the odor is faint now. also i wiped off all the black gunk on my muffler and drove it around for a bit with the new cat, theirs still black stuff on my muffler so im guessin its the carb. so im going to replace this thurs when i get payed. and also my friend checked my car and he said for the coolant leak he told me just to replace my thermostat. my question how do i replace my thermostat?

So I am having problems turning on the car when it has been working for a while and is warmed up. In the morning when the car is cold and hasn't been started, it starts up fine with no problem. After it warms up in 10-15 minutes while I am driving it, when I stop at a stop light it shuts off and its really hard to start it up again. Is there any suggestions?

Is your vehicle carburetted or fuel injected?

carbureted

Check the fuel level in carburettor float chamber.
Check ignition sparks. They must be bright blue.
Does pumping the accelerator 2 or 3 times makes starting easier?

I will check it out and will let you know

Lately my engine has been having some trouble starting. Replaced the battery, alternator, starter, and the spark plugs but I have to turn the key multiple times for it to start.

When I first turn the key there's no sound, no clicking, nothing. Then, I wait a few minutes (and turn the key again, really quickly) and it starts just fine. A tow truck driver jump started my car (about two weeks ago) and it made a noise it's never made before, since then I've been having this problem. The car needed to be jumped because I left the lights on and it drained the battery.

Also, the car now runs hot sometimes but as far as I can tell the cooling system is fine. I flushed and replaced the coolant, replaced the radiator and both the hoses, the pump works (the coolant circulates when the engine's running), and the fan turns on when the car is warmed up.

How do I find out what's causing the problem without replacing everything under the hood?

have a shop verify the battery, starter and alternator are working.
the ignition switch needs to be checked as well. jumping a car these days is never a good idea as computers hate voltage spikes.

Roy

Thanks,
The battery, starter, and alternator were tested and are working.
The ignition switch is something to look into though. I'll have it tested and get back to you.
*If it helps, the clock and radio turn on when I turn the key in the ignition but the engine only turns on after a couple of tries.

get back to us with the results

Roy

Well, it's not the ignition switch.

I really appreciate you guys working with me on this.

Is there anything else that it might be?

Could it be the timing belt?

The timing belt would not cause non cranking.

You have a problem with non cranking so this is basically an electrical fault.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/car-engine-will-not-crank-over

The above link explains the system and how to go about looking for the source of the problem.

My car has a Weber 32/36 carburetor.
The other day i dropped the clutch and since then, it wont hold an idle. It is hard to start and is popping out the carburetor real loud. Any help with be greatly appreciated. Thanks heaps!

The battery works, the alternator works, the starter works: they've been tested four times by four different people, just to be sure

It has an automatic transmission. I made sure the parking brake was on before I attempted to turn on the car, plus the ignition switch was tested, so it's not that

No alarm in the car

Internal Engine Damage?

I'm taking it to a new repair shop today. I'll have them check and let you know how it goes.

check plugs and wires one may have come off and was not put on right in order. also check for a vacuum line off as well as a rocker arm/follower in valve train.

Parking brake has nothing to do with non starting. The Park and Neutral Position switch could be.

No clicking and non cranking should be an easy to detect problem and I would suggest getting an electrician to check rather than a mechaninc, from which I can see you do not have any good electrician on your list of mechanics.

Thanks for your reply Hmac!
All wires and hoses are not damaged and are in the correct place. I have also checked the valve train and everything seems to be in good condition, although with the clutch being dropped the valve train is the first thing that comes to mind.
Thanks mate!

About an hour ago I saw an auto electrician.

His wife translated for me, but she said, "As far as he can tell, there's no problem with the starter, battery or alternator. There could still be an electrical problem, but he'll have to spend more time with the car to find it"

She also suggested that they could install a "push-start" button to bypass all the wires and just connect the battery to the starter if I didn't want to spend the time and money to find the problem. I told them I'd rather wait until I know for sure what the problem is.

They were telling me that it's common for older Toyota Corollas (between 83 and 87) to get electrical shorts in "the shaft", but I don't know enough about cars to know what "shaft" they're talking about or if any of this is true.

She told me it's going to take time because he's going to take all the electrical components out and test them individually to see if he can find the problem. He's going to do it in his down time between working on other cars and she'll call me when it's done.

you may not have an intake valve opening due to cam/follower wear as that can cause carburetor popping.

One thing about older vehicles is that when wires ages, resistance increases in the wiring and for the starting circuit, the solenoid requires a rather high current to work. I have encountered many such cases and you either replace the wire harness or add a relay to the circuit to rectify, which would be easier, faster and more economical and also prolong the ignition starting circuit life.

"either replace the wire harness or add a relay to the circuit to rectify"

That's essentially what the electrician and his wife told me. It's certainly something to consider.

My uncle wants to take a look at the car before I decide. He knows more about the car than I do and he just wants to make sure it's getting the care it needs.

I told him he can have it until Monday. I'll let you know if he finds anything different from what we already know.

Thanks for all your help.

Replacing the wire harness didn't work. I'm not sure what else to do. It worked fine for about a week and then last night it just didn't start. Also, I found out it's leaking oil.

Where is the oil leaking from?
What wire harness did you replace?
Did you add a relay to the starting circuit?
Is it the same problem where the starter only clicks when you attempt to crank the engine?

I have a 98 toyota Corolla (CE modeld, automatic, about 220k KM) with two problems that may be related.

1. Everytime after I shut down the engine to fill up gas, the car won't start. I have to crank the car several times to make it start.

2. When I fill up gas, I have to fill it very slowly, little by little. Otherwise, the pump will act like the container is full and lift off. So the pump will stop many times if I fill it a little faster.

Thanks in advance!

[quote:1b10df8dec="schen_1994"]I have a 98 toyota Corolla (CE modeld, automatic, about 220k KM) with two problems that may be related.

1. Everytime after I shut down the engine to fill up gas, the car won't start. I have to crank the car several times to make it start.

2. When I fill up gas, I have to fill it very slowly, little by little. Otherwise, the pump will act like the container is full and lift off. So the pump will stop many times if I fill it a little faster.

Thanks in advance![/quote:1b10df8dec]

Hello !!

those two problems are close related ...
first: check the hose that leads to the gas tank could be bended and that its causing the problem at re-filling.

second: its hard to start because of the excess of Gases on the evaporative recovery system (charcoal canister full) the gases with excess of gas are going directly to the charcoal canister from a little hole on top of the gas fitting (you can see it as soon as you remove the gas cap.

fix the hose first and probably your charcoal canister still good after all (chances are)

Let us Know if that solve your problem!

Good Luck!

Yes, it's the same problem as before: one click when I turn the key and the engine doesn't start.

Not really sure where the oil is leaking from: it's not pooling on the ground overnight, it's just not staying in the engine. It was empty last weekend, filled it back up and it drove during the week. Then yesterday I checked and it was missing some oil again. Not empty this time, just low. Still trying to figure out how badly it's leaking and from where.

About the wire harness: the electricians wife translated for me. She said there's a set of wires in the ignition shaft as part of the starter system and called that the wire harness. That's the best I can tell you on that one. They didn't show it to me, she made gestures with her hands to try to explain it to me. What I got from her explanation is that it's a bundle of wires in a shaft that connects from the starter to the ignition and a bunch of other components.

Didn't install the push-start button because I wasn't sure it would fix the problem and I didn't feel comfortable letting them cut a hole in the dashboard if it wouldn't resolve the issue. They told me replacing that bundle in the shaft would fix the problem and they wouldn't have to tear up the dashboard. So I let them replace the wires in that shaft.

If you do not see any oil leak to the ground, chances are it is not leaking. The engine is consuming engine oil and that would mean bad valve seals and/or piston oil rings. Note if the exhaust is smoking while engine is running.

You replaced the ignition switch which is not what I had in mind. The ignition switch wire goes to the dashboard to the side panels/firewall to the starter solenoid. It is this portion that is faulty and wasnot replaced. You do not need to cut anything nor install a push button switch for installing the relay. Seems the electrician you have is not really as good as I expected.

What you need to do is to wire a relay in the engine compartment and parts stores should have the relay and wire set for this. Wire them up between the starter solenoid wire and terminal.

Disconnect starter solenoid wire and attach wire to relay coil terminal #85. Ground terminal #86 of relay. When ignition is turned to crank(start) position the relay would click.

For the power supply to the relay terminal #30, you can tap it from the starter main cable from battery, the fuse box or the battery positive terminals, attach a 30 A fuse in between if you are getting power source from battery or starter.

Attach a wire from terminal # 87 of relay to the starter solenoid terminal and we are done.