2007 Mazda3 2.5 Starting Issue
 

When I go to start the car the starter engages and the engine starts to turn over. It will continue to turn over without firing until I press the throttle. Then it will sputter for a couple seconds. That sputter can lead to the engine sputtering to life or it will die. Usually on the second attempt it will start easier (still need to be on the throttle). Some other things to consider are heat, cold, dry, wet do not seem to affect this behavior. Also there are times when the car will just fire up without issue although those instances are become fewer and farther between. I've put the last 100,000 miles on this car and it has gone through most of the fuel system/evap issues these cars have. I've had it into an experienced mechanic a couple times with no improvement. Any ideas?

I'm probably not going to be much help but i did have a similar issue, i took it in and since it wasn't happening while it was there they refused to replace to start tearing into anything.. some thoughts though, people will tell you pumping the gas wont do anything since its fuel injection and yada yada.. but im just curious have you replaced or disconnected the battery for any reason recently? only because this is what happened to me and this is what fixed it


now this just happened to work for me, but a few other things you could look into are the iac(unless it runs fine after it starts, then i wouldnt really think that) and the throttle position solenoid at the gas pedal could be bunk, or have an random short; where it is not playing nice with the ECU.... Hope you get it sorted, stinks when these issues happen but wont throw any codes to read.