Intermittent Issue: Cold start problem: 2003 Civic EX

2nd time this has happened this year, so I could not reliably reproduce the problem. First time was on a hot summer morning; second time was this winter morning (Santa Cruz, CA). I’m posting just in case somebody has ran across the same problem. I will do some maintenance checks this weekend and see if I can find something obvious.

Early morning, cold engine, if I start the car, it will immediately stop running. If I start it again but keep my foot on the gas pedal, the car will not die. The car will keep running as long as I keep my foot on the gas pedal, minimum 800 rpm and above. Engine runs smooth. The issue happens even if the vehicle reached normal operating temperature.

Once the engine is normal operating temperature, if I let the engine die, wait about 15 minutes, and then I can start the car without any issues.

I’ll post my findings over the weekend, please let me know if you have any ideas on what’s causing this problem.

Thanks,
Rey

 

Took out the air filter housing and cleaned the throttle body. Cleaned the idle air control valve as well. Looks like the IAC valve has enough crap in there to cause cold engine stall issues but not idle issues. I also cleaned the egr ports. Don't know if this was causing the issue, but car idles a little bit better. I will find out soon enough if the vehicle stalls again.