Hi everyone,

My '91 standard 240 sedan has been having some trouble in our cold cold weather (hovering around 5F) these days. I've owned the car for four years and have not experienced this problem in the past.

The car is very hard to start from cold but after nearly some cranking it will start to barely sputter and then it will come to life with a hard press on the gas. It then as normal until coming to a stop, when it will die (no sputtering--just as if the car had been turned off, but all the dash lights remain on. The car starts right back up from this state and if I rev the engine while stopping it seems to prevent the die out and idles normally. The stalling while stopping is erratic--sometimes it stalls out and sometimes it doesn't. Idle also seems to dip very slightly right when the gas pedal is initially depressed.

Just went out to try to start the car from semi-warm and it started up but the idle was a little weird--would occasionally dip down and almost die but then recover itself. Didn't notice this happening during normal driving.

I ran OBD mode 3/injection system test but didn't come up with any codes (mode 1 read 1-1-1). I am wondering whether this could be a dead or dying fuel pump relay or possibly a dirty throttle body or idle air control problem. I wasn't able to wrestle the hose off the check the throttle but since I didn't get any fault codes I'm lost.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.