Toyota 177hp TurboD - 7000km - Mchenry
Corolla Verso delivered early September 2006

The car recently refused to start, or rather started and stalled immediately a number of times. It was carted away to the dealer by a local breakdown driver who started it using the accelerator pedal, thus racing a stone-cold engine (I was not present or I would have told him to stop). Having warmed up the engine, the fault disappeared, and the dealer was only able to reproduce the fault later in the day when the engine was cold. When I collected the car, I was told that the engine control calculator had become "de-programmed" (how the hell does that happen?) and was not taking into account the engine temperature on start-up. They said they had re-programmed it and if the problem happened again I should start it with my foot on the pedal. Needless to say I am not very pleased as I am not prepared to take the risk of having to wait several minutes with my foot on the pedal while the engine warms up or take the risk of it stalling every time I change gear. Added to this I have noticed that when the engine is cold it now idles normally at about 900rpm until I turn on the heater blower at which point it jumps to 1100-1200rpm. The rear screen heater, lights etc. do not have this effect.
Does anyone have any thoughts about the problem so that I can be a bit more clued-up (and forceful) with the dealer if (or when) the problem comes back?