Dear Car Talk, We have a 1994 Miata with 100K miles that runs great once we get it started. It starts right up and does OK for 30 seconds and then dies if we do not keep pumping the accelerator until it warms up-once that happens, it runs fine until the next day when it re-occurs. Been in the shop for three weeks now-they replaced the throttle sensor and associated parts-no problem for 2-3 days, then BAM, back to the same old problem. We are all stymied and frustrated as to what to try next. Can you help? PLEASE! David
I am not a Miata expert - however this sounds like an issue with how the car is handling cold-start. It sounds to me almost like it is choking itself too hard because it is unable to maybe read the engine rpms? Is there a check engine light on? Have you read codes? If I had to guess I would suspect there is an issue with an idle sensor, or possibly your computer is not calibrated correctly for your throttle sensor…hopefully that helps!