5 second short trip cause no start?

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Well today was it guys. First time my beater didn't start. It's a 1999 Solara with the 1MZ-FE engine with 210k miles. It has never done this to me before. I go to start the car, the starter makes a very unfamiliar whirring noise. It is possible that it's normal, since the engine usually fires right up. I may just not be used to it. But anyways, the engine doesn't fire up. I try maybe 5 times. After that, there's a really weak chug, but the ignition is released quickly out of fear. The car stinks like fuel, like really strong.

Try to start it again, the chugging sound again, let it run for 2 seconds. Turn it off again. Finally on the 7th or so try, the engine fires up normally. What on Earth is going on? The only thing I can think of is the last time I started it. It was 3 days ago on Sunday. I just moved it from outside my garage to inside the garage, so a super short cold start. Is it possible the engine got flooded because of rich fuel mixture? That is the only thing I can think of. But wouldn't it have dried off 3 days later? My confidence in this car keeps going downhill. I need another car.
 
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Yeah you probably flooded it, not uncommon with a cold engine even with EFI. I've had that happen with a Volvo 850 and a Mazda protege5, both instances I ran the car for 30 seconds or so to move it and then shut it off until the following day.

Both cars cranked really fast on the next start attempt, sounded like no compression or jumped timing but were just flooded. Make sure to run the car for at least a minute next time.
 
Yes, I believe that's exactly what happened. I did this in the past by accident. Here's my scenario.

*Washed & waxed my car in the driveway and got it all, nice'a-nice'!
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*I had my cell phone outside while I was washing the car.
*I started the engine so I could run out to get gas when all of a sudden, the phone rang.
*It was my wife telling me she was almost home.
*I still had my hand on the key(engine started) when I shut it off immediately to answer the phone.
*Engine couldn't have been running more than 2 seconds.
*I never did run out to get gas. As we hung up, she was just about to pull in the driveway.

**We then started preparing food(& BEERS)
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as she arranged for friend to come over for a cookout.
**It wasn't till the next day that I went out to get gas for the car.
**As I tried to start the engine, it just went...Uhhhh, uhhhh, uhhhh as the cylinders must have been flooded.
**I knew exactly what was going on as it hit me that I shut off the engine way too quickly the day before.
**So, I pushed the gas pedal to the floor and held it there while I turn the key...this shuts off the fuel flow/pump.
**The engine went from...Uhhhh to spinning more freely and started normally and ran perfectly. Maybe with a little stutter at first.
 
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Wow, I had no idea flooding an engine could be that impactful. I mean, three days of sitting and it still was flooded? It does seem like a reasonable explanation though. The engine ran fine after getting to start.
 
The other way to help the compression is to remove the plugs and add a little oil to each cylinder.
Put plugs back and press gas pedal and crank until it starts. Once it starts keep RPM above 1000 for 30-40 seconds.
Let the engine warm up and take it for a high way drive, if you can do an Italian Tune Up
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Originally Posted by Kurtatron
Wow, I had no idea flooding an engine could be that impactful. I mean, three days of sitting and it still was flooded? It does seem like a reasonable explanation though. The engine ran fine after getting to start.


Some engines need the plugs removed and cleaned off eg Mazda rotary engines when you do that, it was not still flooded but the plugs were fouled.

Way back when when I worked at the dealer level, it was common to have "no start" after short runs, most engines had carbs then.
 
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Good thing most EFI vehicles have a "clear flood" mode -- floor the gas before turning the key on and cranking.
 
Originally Posted by Kurtatron
Wow, I had no idea flooding an engine could be that impactful. I mean, three days of sitting and it still was flooded? It does seem like a reasonable explanation though. The engine ran fine after getting to start.


Yeah, not 3 days like in your situation however, when I mentioned that I hadn't tried to start the engine til the next day, it was late in the afternoon on that next day.

Originally Posted by Kurtatron
Note to self: don't do that again anytime soon. Thanks for the info all.


Yeah, I said the same thing and haven't done it since.

This happened to me last summer with my leaf blower. I was running at full throttle and cleaning the grass off of the driveway & sidewalk when the engine just quit. Turns out, the coil wire broke at the spark plug and the blower just STOPPED!
When I tried to pull start it again, I couldn't even pull the cord to restart it.

After inspection and pulling the wire off the plug, I noticed it was broken. I pulled out the spark plug and was able to pull the cord/recoil. Apparently it had hydrolocked...running at WOT(lots of fuel going into the cylinder) when it just quit. I fixed the wire and finished cleaning the yard.

Even though I was able to get it restarted and finish my work, I could never get the blower to restart again even with a new coil. I have a post somewhere about this. I bought a new blower(SEARS Closeout).
 
Originally Posted by Kurtatron
Wow, I had no idea flooding an engine could be that impactful. I mean, three days of sitting and it still was flooded? It does seem like a reasonable explanation though. The engine ran fine after getting to start.

I had that happen once to our '11 Camry. I forget the details, but it was run for 10 seconds so as to move 10 feet, something like that. I think we did that one day, it snowed the next and we flew out for a week. Came back, weather warmed up nicely, and the darn thing cranked stupid fast. Sat for a week and it was still flooded (not that I knew, not until I went to start it). I'm guessing low ambient temps did not help.

That was 4 years ago, doesn't seem to have phased the car.
 
My Civic used to do this. Holding it to the floor used to fix it as others are saying. Usually it would start and idle horribly rough and miss like crazy for about 30 seconds.
 
It was very common with Nissan SR20 engines some years ago - you start one up and park it... go out and move it 10 minutes later and it spins over like a broken cambelt.
 
Pretty common occurrence, plugs need to be at a certain temperature to self clean, so a short cold start is a double problem. You have plugs that are not up to temperature and an engine that is fueling rich for a cold start.
 
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