'09 with only 1200 miles. Three times in the last four weeks, while city driving and stopped at a light, with my foot on the brake pedal, the gas engine will attempt to start, then immediately stop, then attempt to start, then immediately stop, etc., about every 1 1/2 seconds. The engine never actually gets to idle speed. The A/C is off. The Main battery appears adequately charged on the MFD. A quick fix is to push the Park button, and the cyclic activity stops. When it's time to go, I place the car in drive and everything then works fine. The symptom is too intermittent to replicate on demand. My nearest Toyota dealer is 50 miles away, otherwise I'd drive out and have them put the engine analyzer on it. But the symptoms have disappeared for now. Thoughts?
Intermittent brake pedal position switch, perhaps: the car can't decide whether you're about to start moving or not. Next time mash the brake pedal to the floor and see whether it makes a difference.
