crank, fire, hesitate, crank, fire, run, gas smell

[1stToyota]

Originally Posted by twowheels

The car is 5.5 months old and has 15000 miles on it, so the battery and everything else should be fresh.

As for the tapping and releasing. The ECU takes over the starting process. The key is merely a signal, unlike other cars where you are in control of how long the starter stays in. It's not so much a tap as just a very short time spent in the start position, but I really doubt that's the cause since it goes through the whole process of continuing to crank for 3 or 4 seconds until it starts.

It's real simple...stop the taps long enough to see if the problem persists. I've never heard of anyone doing the tapping method and don't know what the advantage would be if engine continues to crank 3 or 4 seconds in the run mode; I've never needed to crank mine more than 2 or 3 seconds with the ignition in the start mode.