10% ethanol is fairly standard in many parts of the country.

I've had my TCH since last May & I have had the "shutter" quite a few times. I'm in NorCal & it's hardly every colder than 35F. When I called the dealer ship they said they couldn't tell me anything til they heard the noise. Since I can't MAKE it happen I haven't taken it in.

I have had some shutter during cold weather morning starts. It may be more to the Atkins Cycle engine designed to get high gas mileage rather than it being a real problem.

I do this sequence. (2/3 seconds each) Press the brake then the power button. When the READY light shows I place it in drive or reverse. I let it roll for about 8 to 10 feet then the engine starts. Doing that I have never had a shutter.

I also found if I place my foot on the brake for a half minute. Then press the power button, the ice starts right away. I have had some shutters if the car is not in gear and rolling when it starts like I mentioned earlier.

I've had my '08 TCH for a couple of weeks now and I've experienced the 'shudder/chutter' occasionally when the temps have been below 0F. The temp has only been above freezing a couple of days since I've had the car, but it started smoother when it was above 20F. Also, I bought better gas as was recommended earlier in this thread, it is has helped.

I hope this helps some and solves the problem for me. My car occasionally shudders excessively at start up. The tech replaced the water pump on my car thinking that may solve the problem.

I'll have to wait a number of weeks till I give you all some feedback. The pump was only ~ $150 CAD, not sure what the labour is on that. It was covered on warranty. I'm not overly confident that it'll solve this problem though. I've had it at diff. temp. but I thought colder weather made it occur more often. I have had the car very cold -25 C and not have this occur though, so I don't know what gives. I specifically put in the 0w20 oil this winter hoping that would solve the problem, but no dice.

I also asked if a TSB was released diagnosing the water pump for this, they said, "No." - At least not in Canada, eh.

cheers

I wonder if all the TCHs have this problem. Mine does it occasionally, but only if the engine starts when cold and the car is not moving. There must be a flywheel effect on helping kick the engine to start when the car is rolling forward or backward.

I don't believe the electric motor spins the engine over as fast at cold start-up as a normal starter, when the car is sitting still. Could be the TCH lean burn engine may not feed as rich a mixture at crank-up to help conserve gas.

I don't think they all do this as I live in the sub zero climate and never had it happen.

TCH-43mpg
VW TDI--48
08 LS 600 HL-20
08 LX 470-16

I've had a scary chutter happen just last week. We left our car parked at a friends house while we went for a vacation. Temperature in seattle when we left was 80 degrees and throughout the week it probably averaged 55-60 degrees.

We arrived back to pick up our TCH at around 6:30pm, temperature in the 60's. My wife got in the car and started it up while I was unloading our luggage from the taxi. The car was still in park, brake pedal NOT depressed when the ICE turned on. The chutter was loud initially and softened a bit but lasted for about 10 seconds. It shook the car during the initial loud chutter right when the ICE started up. It went away but those were the most frightening 10 seconds ever (in regards to the vehicle).

It happened once before, same scenario, last December.. parked car in friends house, went on vacation (1 week), came back, started car, chutter.

It was very loud. At first I thought all the oil settled in the bottom of the pan (Toyota 0w-20) and at first ICE startup, it was still trying to circulate the oil, and once fully circulated, then the chutter went away, but who knows?