Avalon barely starts, stalls – Toyota Avalon 1MZ-FE 3.0L 2003

Car Forum Repair & Maintenance Avalon barely starts, stalls – Toyota Avalon 1MZ-FE 3.0L 2003

  • redgigahertz
    Community Member
    June 12, 2022 at 11:12 am

    I have a 2003 Toyota Avalon that barely starts up, and runs rough. After a few seconds it stalls out. We (me & a friend) thought it was the timing and we re-timed it, but the problem still stands. According to him though it sounded a lot better after we re-timed it, (I hadn’t heard it crank before we re-timed it) so I would assume that was one of the issues, but we can’t find what is potentially another issue keeping the car from starting and staying running. Other than the timing we have checked:
    – Air intake

    – Fuel pump

    – That it has fresh fuel

    – Ignition coils

    – The battery is good and charged

    All these things check out good.

    We also scanned the computer with OBDII and no codes were returned.

    Here is a video of it cranking over. On the second attempt at starting it, I revved it a bit and that kept it running a little longer than the first time, but it inevitably stalled out. We also tried starter fluid and IIRC that kept it running, it didn’t stall out until we stopped the supply of it. If it’s still the timing that’s off, just better than it was before, then I really don’t know what to do because the marks are all lined up. If anybody has any idea of what it could be preventing this car from running, any help would be appreciated.

    Brand: Toyota
    Model: Avalon
    Year: 2003
    Engine: 1MZ-FE 3.0L

    redgigahertz
    Community Member
    June 14, 2022 at 1:00 pm
    Up
    1
    Down

    Sorry, the link was removed from the post somehow. Here’s the video:

    View post on imgur.com

    redgigahertz
    Community Member
    June 14, 2022 at 8:23 pm
    Up
    0
    Down

    Ok, so we found a decently large hole in the air intake tubes. After some rough patching it up with electrical tape, the car now stays running but still runs rough. Scanning with OBDII once again presents a new code: Malfunctioning heated oxygen sensor, also there’s now smoke leaking through an exhaust pipe under the engine bay.

    redgigahertz
    Community Member
    June 17, 2022 at 6:46 pm
    Up
    0
    Down Accepted answer

    I would also like to post here that after fixing the vacuum leak we scanned the computer again and got a code for a misfire on cylinders 2, 4, and 6. Since there’s obviously fuel pressure we assumed it was a problem with the fuel rail, and it was. 2 out of the 3 fuel injectors are not firing properly in the piston cycle.

    Boki
    Community Member
    June 18, 2022 at 7:57 am
    Up
    0
    Down

    redgigahertz, it looks you have several overlapping issues here. For a start, can you tell us which codes you have (those in P0xxx format)?