Full throttle start...kinda

[Fusion7]

Hello all. My wife has a 2002 Escape (V6, 106K miles) that we just payed off and I have been doing some of the maintenance on it. When she gets in it to go to work it sometimes takes a few tries to get it started and when she does she has had to give it gas to start. Well today she called me from her work saying it wouldnt start and stay running, just died. Engine light comes on. She waits for a few minutes and tries again, this time holding down on the throttle. It starts and runs fine all the way home, no check engine light. I replaced the fuel filter over this past weekend and it fired right up, as it did this morning when she went to work. The plugs and radiator flush is next but I would like to solve this problem first. Do any of you have a good place to start with the troubleshooting?

[JFUSION21]

sounds like the fuel filter may have done the trick, see how it goes from here. If you could have read the CEL it may have proven helpful. I would suggest doing the plugs for sure next. Fuel and ignition usually culprits to hard starts.

[Fusion7]

I might have been misleading there. It was doing this before I changed the fuel filter, hoping the fuel filter would help. I changed the filter Saturday and it did it again yesterday (Monday). My wife said she had to hold the gas pedal down to get it to keep running for a few seconds then it was fine. I am going to clean the IAC and throttle body this evening. We replaced the IAC about 3 years ago when her car would almost die whenever we stopped at a redlight. Thing is with this problem the check engine light does not stay on after she gets it started. Can an error code still be stored even though the check engine light isnt on?

[wptski]

Originally Posted by Fusion7

I might have been misleading there. It was doing this before I changed the fuel filter, hoping the fuel filter would help. I changed the filter Saturday and it did it again yesterday (Monday). My wife said she had to hold the gas pedal down to get it to keep running for a few seconds then it was fine. I am going to clean the IAC and throttle body this evening. We replaced the IAC about 3 years ago when her car would almost die whenever we stopped at a redlight. Thing is with this problem the check engine light does not stay on after she gets it started. Can an error code still be stored even though the check engine light isnt on?

There are what's called "pending" codes. If the PCM finds a problem it stores the DTC as "pending" three times before it turns the CEL ON. After so many drive cycles without a problem the PCM clears everything.

Some OBD-II scanners will show the "pending" codes also. I usually will scan a vehicle with the key in the run position first.

[Fusion7]

Fixed for now. Took off the throttle body and IAC and cleaned them both. I have read not to clean the IAC but I did it anyways, easy like, and all seems fine. Sorry for taking so long for posting the solution. Thanks for your help.