For about a week now, on startup the car barley idles. Its very rough and irratic. Then on the first couple of minutes it has a bad miss to it. After its warmed up it runs fine though, no miss or anything and it doesn't feel down on power. The only thing I can think of is I hit a puddle at ~35mph right before it started doin it, and it might have gotten my opti, but it was only a few inches deep.

 

Odd. You have a vented opti, but you may have cause irrepareable damage by hitting the puddle...

 

If its the opti why does it get better once its warmed up though?

 

Might be the opti since you hit the puddle. Check your wires to see if they are not burnt or bad also. When was the last time you had your spark plugs replaced?

 

Spark plugs, ~5K miles ago, Wires and coil <300 miles ago. I don't think its the wires being burnt either. Also, its only when the car is cold and has sat for awhile. Once its warmed up it runs like nothing has happened.

 

This morning it barley idled and was missing like crazy the first few minutes I drove it, then it smoothed out and was fine. Then today after school I could barley keep it running, it kept stalling out. Black smoke was pouring out the tail pipes and my friend said it kind of smelled like unburnt fuel. It took atleast 5 minutes for the idle to smooth out. Do you think it could be a bad tank of gas? Its wierd though, it only does it when the motors cold. It seems to be gettin worse though.

 

Ever find out what was wrong?? Mine is doing the same thing. When I start the car, it feels and sounds like my car is only running on 1 or 2 cylinders, and I have to give it gas to keep it from stalling out. after about a minute, the revs jump to like 1500 fo ra few secs, then settle down to 800-900 and the car runs fine again, feels normal, no power loss or anything. Also, this probem is throwing no codes.

 

My problem was I forgot to put on the ground strap to the coil bolt. But I had a problem with your symptroms, and it turned out to be a bad coolant temp sensor, the one that goes into the waterpump. It would barley run when its cold, then run fine when its warm. Then it got to a point where it would barley run at any temp.