Starting issues 97 Corolla

My 1997 Toyota Corolla has recently began hesitating when starting. When I turn the ignition, her idle seems normal, but then goes ‘down’ and it feels like she’s going to die. But then the idle/revs go back up and she’s fine. However within the past week, she dies when starting (usually the first start or two of the day). She turns over, but then ‘fizzles out’ and dies. However when she does this, a small tap on the gas pedal revs her up.

This does not occur every time I start her. In fact the more I use her throughout the day, it seems she starts normal.

There are no issues with RPMs/Idling when driving.

I’ve taken her to two mechanics and they could find nothing. Fuel pump, fuel line, throttle body, etc. All fine. When hooked up on the computer the only thing that showed a slight reading is the idle air control valve. But they can’t be sure that’s the problem.

Of course she hasn’t died for the mechanics, just me as it’s sporadic.

When I turned her on today she didn’t die in the morning like she has all week, however the idle was so low that we were waiting for her to die. Slowly the revs picked up and she was fine!

I put fuel injector cleaner in a few days ago and got an oil change yesterday. That’s it.

Any thoughts?

The first thing I would do is clean the throttle body AND the idle air control valve

Don’t remove the idle air control valve unless you intend to replace it, as the gasket may not survive

It’s possible the IAC itself is faulty

No stored fault codes, I presume?