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Hesitation With Cold Engine On 2000 Ce




Guest AndrewK

My wife has a 2000 Corolla CE, about 55K miles. Plugs and wires are fairly new, and it's had a couple of doses of Techron fuel system in the last few tanks.

She's having problems with it hesitating when the engine first starts. It idles fine, but when she steps on the gas it won't go right away.

This started a few weeks ago. Now the CEL is on and it's worse.

Once it's warmed up, all is well -- smooth as ever.

Any suggestions? I'd hate to blow big bucks on new injectors, but I can't think of what it might be. We're bringing it in to have the CEL checked, but the hesitation started before that, and I'd like to have some idea what's up.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Auto parts stores like autozone can read the codes for free. She what the problem is before you start guessing.

It might be a temp sensor or something that would mess up air and fuel mixtures during warmup. Whatever it is, it's not mechanical or it wouldn't run right after it warms up.

Guest scorpionzx1

ya, I would go to autozone or a parts store and check what it is reading, however if it happends to be injectors, just check ebay, or go to a junk yard and see if you can find anything a little cheaper, but good.

Guest AndrewK

Cool beans -- thanks for the AutoZone tip. Sounds a lot better than the alternative.

My wife's 2001 Corolla LE is having the exact same problem. After about two to three months of this the check engine light came on and I took it into a service station and they read the code which just said "multiple misfires." He changed the plugs but it did the same thing. I found another person at toyotanation.com forum that describes the same issue but I cannot get my account activated to ask him if he figured it out.

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/t7088.html

If anyone has any ideas I would be so appreciative.

Guest AndrewK

Here's what I'd try -- it made a HUGE difference for my wife's car, and it's cheap and easy.

1. Remove the gas cap and put it back on tightly, just in case.

2. Disconnect the negative terminal of the battery and remove the fuse that's labeled EFI. It's small and wedged between two larger fuses, but you can wiggle it out. This will reset the codes while you do the following:

3. On top of the air filter housing (slightly to the back) is a sensor. It's held onto the housing by two small screws and a wiring harness that's easily removed (squeeze and pull gently).

Remove it. On the outside you'll see a small wire with what looks like a drop of oil on it. More importantly, if you look down into the thing you'll see two tiny wires deep down, across one of the openings. They're each about 1/4 inch long; a flashlight helps.

You need to clean these wires. I used some choke cleaner I had, but any kind of alcohol-based component cleaner will do the trick. I sprayed it generously into the sensor, then I GENTLY used a Q-top to wipe those two wires, and another to clean out the inside of the sensor as well as that oil-drop thing.

Let it dry for 15 or 20 minutes, then reinstall it.

4. Replace the fuse and reconnect the battery. (Reset your clock and your radio stations. default_smile

My wife said that cleaning that sensor was "night and day" with her car -- no more check-engine light, no more hesitation.

But I stress that she had a different code, and this might not help. Still, the difference was so striking that it can't hurt. It'll take about 30 minutes, tops.

Good luck!



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