00 Intrigue Hard Start, high revs

I have a 2000 Intrigue, 150k. Lately it's been giving me some trouble with hard starting. It will crank for a while, and then start only to die again. A couple more tries, or giving it some gas will keep it running. It has only died on me twice once it's successfully started and achieved idle. Both times were after driving for a half hour or so, and then idling in Park with the A/C on.

Sometimes once it gets started, the RPM's will shoot up anywhere from 1500 to 2500. Restarting a time or two seems to fix this. The exhaust smells a little bit of gas, even after it's been running for a while. The engine seems to be running fine when it's in gear, and my gas mileage is around 26mpg, which doesn't seem too bad. There are no SES lights on.

I tried replacing the IAC, since that fixed the high idle problem 50k miles earlier. That seems to have had no effect on the idle surge. The Fuel Pressure Regulator was changed at around 50k. The Throttle Position Sensor was also replaced at around 100k. I have pulled the vacuum line from the FPR, and there was no gas in the line. I have not done a fuel pressure test. I was hoping to avoid that, as the equipment for that costs as much as replacing a lot of the parts. Thanks for any advice on where I can start looking!

As an aside, thanks to LittleHoov I replaced my sway bar yesterday with the one from GMPP. It went off without a hitch. Without your info, I would have paid 3x as much for a mechanic to do it.

Your post reads like you are having problems with either the ignition switch or the FPR. Neither one of these issues will trigger a "check engine" light. Others have posted on how to check the FPR. you can probably have a mechanic do it for fairly cheap if you want to avoid buying the tools. Some auto part stores loan out tools as well.

If it is an ignition problem, Littlehoov posted directions on how to change it. Very detailed and accurate directions. i used them myself when i replced the ignition switch on my Intrigue last year.

The Fuel Pressure Regulator fixed the hard start. About 2 miles after I changed it and started my test drive, it threw a SES light. I checked the codes, and it didn't hold anything firm. It kept giving me different codes. One was for Crankshaft Position Sensor, one was for Fuel Pressure Regulator, one was for Throttle Position Sensor. I cleared them, and they haven't given me another code since Friday. Hopefully that's all I have to do for now.

Thanks for your confirmation that it seemed like a FPR. I wanted at least one person to concur before I threw the money into it.

i've personally seen ignition switches give similar issues like you describe, most notably several unexpected and unrelated DTC codes that happen completly randomly (i think the alero i worked on had 6 codes that never returned after cleared)