This problem has me at my wits end. When I go to start my car, about every third time, it will crank, fire up and then immediately die. Giving it gas will kill it unless you are really careful. Once you get it started, the car hesitates about a second every time I shift. But once the car has warmed up, it's fine.

So far I have replaced the TPS and EGR, set minimum air and cleaned the IAC. If anyone has ideas, it would be most appreciated.

 

I'm also in the process of troubleshooting a weird stall issue. The thing about these types of problems is that there are so many possible causes, you gotta do a bunch of troubleshooting to finally find out whats causing the problem. Sometimes its a real PITA.

A scantool will really help when troubleshooting these kind of problems. It will tell you want your sensor outputs are, kind of give you an idea of why whatever it happening is happening. Some sensors go bad in the sense that they dont put out the right voltages or values, but they still put out something so the SES light wont go on. This is what happened with my TPS sensor, it was actually working but putting out the wrong voltages. TPS should put out .54v at idle and thats adjusted by moving the position of the sensor when the screws are loose. You could test alot of these sensors with a DVM, but the scantool makes it much easier. Other sensors to look into, the O2 and knock sensors. You might also want to test the ESC system, unfortunately this requires a DVM (or you could just unhook it and see if it still dies out).

I would use a paperclip first to pull any possible error codes from the ECM making sure not to crank the car with the clip inserted. After that I would use the paperclip while the car is already running to see if its in open or closed loop when it starts acting funky. There are alot of variables that need to be met to enter closed loop and alot of them are dependant on temperature. You said it works great after it warms up so I'm thinking it might be a problem with open loop operation before it switches to closed loop, just a guess though. Knowing what mode the ECM is in can help you narrow it down. I would also check the timing (with the ESC disconnected) as well as do a vacuum test.

Something tells me the problem is fuel related. It could be that the fuel system is fine but a bad 02 sensor is causing it to run wrong. To make sure its not the fuel system hook up a fuel psi guage to the fitting on the fuel rail and tape the guage to the windshield. Keep starting the car until you can get it to act funky again, keep your eye on the fuel pressure. It should go around 43-47psi when you turn the ignition on, and drop around 3psi and hold steady after the car is started. When the car starts acting up watch the fuel psi and see if it holds steady. If its steady then at least you know its good up to the fuel rail. If you still suspected fuel at this point you would need to individually test the injectors (either with a DVM/OM or by pulling them out). I would only do this after making sure all sensor that are related to fuel (aka 02 sensor) are working good.