First some background.
I purchased a 2002 Chevrolet malibu from my mother in law. The car only had 54000 miles on it and was a clean florida car which means 0 rust. Only problem with the car is the car starts very hard when cold and when it would finally start the car would sputter and stall if i did not hit the throttle. The car did not throw any check engine lights or any pending codes. So I hit the web looking for others who had the issue. I found alot of people who had similar issues but they saw a anti theft light which I did not and that issue related to the ignision switch and the car going into theft mode. Since there was no light this was not my problem.
So upon looking I found issues like the usually stem from a crank position sensor going bad. I fthe sensor is bad it would not allow the spark plug to fire properly hence no starting and sputtering. This seemed to fit the symptoms so I replaced that sensor. Replacing this required removing the wheel, inner fender, serpentine belt, and crank pulley. Needless to say I was more than a littel agravated that all that effort did not cure the problem and I was not taking it all apart again to put the oginal back in.
So back to the drawing board for me. my next thought was to clean the throttle body IAC and maf out in case deposits were gumming up the works. After cleaning everything I noticed the AIC looked a little rough so I thought maybe that was my problem. I figured it stood to reason it could cause the symptoms and it was confirmed by a little google searching. So I picked one up a new AIC and tried it out. Unfortunatly no dice the issue was still there. So I put the original back in no sense in wasting money on parts I dont need.
So with no codes being thrown and it seemed to me the car had to keep cranking to restore fuel preasure to the fuel injection system so it could start. I read online about cars having the fuel preasure regulator go south which would upon sitting cause the fuel int he rail to back bleed to the fuel tank. Thus causing the fuel system to not have enough preasure to start right away when someone turns the key until the fuel pump ran enough to restore the preasure needed. I returned the AIC and picked up the fuel preasure regulator and while I was at it i grabbed a new fuel filter as well just to be 100% that there was not a clog in that. My father in law assured me he had it replaced within a year but with the couple days I had with the car I was not going to take a chance.
I Installed the fuel filter first as I figured that would drain the fuel from the line as I would rather have fuel all over in the rear area of the car where there is less chance of it igniting than in the engine compartment where it could be under preasure and spray everywhere. took about 15 minutes as it is not in the easiest area to work.
With the new filter installed I moved on to the fuel preasure regulator which looked to be in a difficult spot but after a half our or so I got it out. Replaced the regulator started and started the car a couple times which took a few cranks to restore preasure to the system. after getting fuel to back I let the car sit for 20 minutes or so while I cleaned up the garage to try to get the car to do the crank and stall thing again. The car fired right up. But with my luck I had been having I was reluctant to call it fixed. I decided to call it a night parked the car and let it sit went in the house kissed the kids good night talked to the wife and watched a half our of tv. After about 45 minutes passed I figured what the heck I will run out and try the car as that would be more than enough time for the issue to come back around. But this time I turned the key and the car started right up and a big smile returned to my face after 3 days of trouble shooting. I hope no one ends up with an issue like this as it was a major pain but just in case I wanted to share my experience in hopes it will assist others.
^^^ Krazykid post right hurrrrr, haha
Huh?
Mine has done this 3 times. I have found no commonality between the instances, I usually hit the throttle once or twice and it stops.
Mine isn’t present enough for me to want to replace anything, but if I had to guess I’d say throttle position sensor.
in your case I would say TPS as well did you try cleaning your maf, throttle body etc etc its easy and if it doesnt fix it it sure cant hurt it. I use carb cleaner in the throttle body aic and tps and electronics cleaner on the MAF. cant hurt