TeeCizzle

This ISN'T about Motor Oil People@...lol...Start another thread if you wanna talk about Motor Oil!!!

Gosh!!...ok then...

SSQ

Well, there probably won't be a transition as oil won't change it's chemical state under normal temperature. We won't know what the viscosity vs. temperature of the oil unless somebody has access to a heatable rheometer/viscometer with the right geometery (maybe cone-plate?).

__NYTCGunz__

all good info but my starting problem is still going on, ive tried everything, has anybody thought it was their tranny jamming up??

TeeCizzle

A car not starting that great has nothing to do w/ Transmission!..sorry to Burst your bubble...lol...

Where are ALL the knowledgable people at????....

I still think its part of the Electrical Sys. NOT geting enough juice!!
I dunno...thats why I am really curious to know about this!!!

djct_watt

RELAX!!! I thought this thread was about diagnosing the starting problem, is it not? I mean, nobody here has FIXED the problem or found concrete evidence as to what the culprit is.

We have a bunch of heresay of what MIGHT be the problem, so it's wise NOT to rule out any possibilities. . . it very well could be the oil.

SSQ

Knowledgable people are fighting global warming, so all you get is us needleheads.

If you think it's th electrical system, a good first step would be to get your battery tested to see if it's still chugging out the same amount of power. A lot of places can load test them for you. but I think our batteries has a pretty good CCA rating already though....

djct_watt

Agreed. . . but then again, many of us do NOT have this problem. The electrical system is fairly uniform among most of the cars. . . and if it were the culprit, we'd see a LOT more people with this problem. That is, unless we're talking about basic maintainence and bad batteries.

7thgear

It could a number of other things and it may well could be something we had never thought about. Let's not argue about what it is or what it is not. I just want you guys to help me with ideas and I'm gonna test it. Unfortunately, I can't speed up the process, because the car has to sit overnight and I want it to show consistency or at least noticeable improvement. And especially dealing with gas types as of right now, it takes time for me to use up all the gas, but trust me, I drive a lot. I want to isolate the problem, not do everything that comes to mind and never figuring out what the problem is. So just bare with me.

DANIEL209

All I pump in my car is Chevron and the same start up problem began to happen to my Tc. My motor is all stock. Oh well, it stopped after a week.

7thgear

See... I'm telling you guys... Chevron might be the problem. Gas tank is almost done. I'll switch after that and let you guys know.

raiyen

i always put 92 on mine.. chevron that is. runs like a champ.. no problem there, again it's stock w/ aftermarket exhaust.. like chevron better cuz it smells better than shell when starting up, yah not supposed to smell them vapors but always got to smell them accidentally...

jbae1221

oh one thing with gas guys, when you fill up don't fill up when the tanker is there filling their tanks. That gas is going in there, i forget, but a lot of gallons per second. You can imagine what is getting stirred up down there. The pumps pull gas from close to the bottom of the tank. So, what the tanker is stirring up, is getting into your tanks. Granted most stations will have some sort of filtration system, but that only filters so much.
On a different note, can we really put the problem on gas?? I mean, the starting problems only happen when the car sits for a long time. I would think that it would be a electrical problems or something sticking.. Maybe an injector clogged/sticking, something of that sort. I would think on the electrical side, because maybe there is a drain on the battery while it sits, if you take it to somewhere, I know Sears does it, the have a machine to check if there is a drain on the battery while the car is off. But, I'm no pro so don't take my word for it.

paul34

I'm pretty sure its just the battery. It seems a lot of stock batteries that come with cars these days aren't very good.

Maybe someone with an aftermarket battery can agree/disagree with this.

Skeorx13

I tried putting on multiple higher gauge grounding wires and it actually screwed up my electrical systems. My windows would lose power mid rolldown, the sunroof would just twitch and not move any further. The ground wire mod on tC's doesn't work unless you have multiple amps or massive aftermarket drains on the electrical system. I actually just started getting this problem the last couple days. Every now and then it will get this issue for a day or two and then disappear. I thought it was my oil as I needed a change. But I just got the oil changed and it still does it. It could be the gas but I haven't seen a consistent recurrence of this problem yet...

TongMan

Same issue with my tC. I'm supercharged running 91 octane Chevron with 10w30 Mobil 1 Fully Synthetic Oil. On cold starts, I would have trouble starting. Second time would be okay.

TeeCizzle

Geeesh U People think...Scion needs to do some ReCall Action????...lol

raiyen

don't know. i mean it's not in all our tC rite? only some...

amdforever

I think you may have something there. My 07 has only done this to me 3 or 5 times since I've had it...mid July of 06. I literally can count on one hand how many times its done it. All 3+ times it seemed like a battery issue. The first two...a friend left the rear dome light on in my car. I didn't know it til a few days later it was getting dark while driving and I noticed it in the rear view mirror, this was Aug. 06, happened two days in a row. The last time it did it to me was this past weekend, my iPod died and had it plugged into its port in the center console. Next morning car didn't want to start on first try but did the second time. Now, I assumed that ALL power would be cut to accessories when the car is off, but maybe it didn't cut to the iPod, dunno, didn't check it.

The path I was leaning towards though was maybe fuel system depressurizes itself over time. I've heard of a few threads talking about this, never checked them out though. So it if depressures and your injectors may be a bit clogged, there might not be enough fuel getting "sprayed" into the cylinders on the first go round. So when we try the second time, it already has some pressure built up from the fuel pump and walla, it works. Dunno, not a mechanic, just my thoughts running loose in my head. But it seems to be an isolated problem for sure. Not too many people complaining about it here on the forum, and you would think that people that use it as a reg. car and don't know about forums and stuff would just take it to the dealer and Scion would get the hint its widespread. I see no evidence of that happening...

HippieCat

Interesting, mine states 87, not 91.

Back on topic, has anyone though of the emission leak down test the car does on itself every once in awhile? Could be a high vacuum buildup in the tank, from the test, maybe next time try to pop the fuel cap, let it vent, then reinstall fuel cap and try to start to see if it helps.

If it's random, another thing to check is a sticky pcv valve.

And one final thing I would try is an ecu reset. Just disconnect the battery for 5 and reconnect it, let the ecu relearn with the new cai if you haven't already.

baysurfer

I've been having the same problem in my tC for about a month or so, and its driving me crazy.

I use regular unleaded Shell gas (always have since I bought the car) and never had problems with the gas, so I don't believe its the gas that's causing the problem.

It only seems to happen when I'm starting the car after having it sit in the garage for 6+ hours (usually overnight). The outside temperature doesn't seem to be a factor because my car is garaged (about 60-65 degrees in there) and it doesn't get very cold at night in CA.

I notice that if I turn the key to ACC (accessory) and let the car "warm up" for 30-45 seconds (the needles move and the radio starts) I don't have the problem once I fully start the engine. Is this because fuel is starting to pressurize before the car is actually started? Has anyone tried this also?