Wont hold an idle at first.

[Letters11]

Hi everyone, thanks for tuning in. The other morning my girlfriend went out to start my car and she said she would crank it over and it would start but then die right away. She did it 3 times and the same thing happened (I figured she forgot to take it out of gear...again). About 10 minutes later I as out there and it did this one time and then started fine. The next morning I went out and tried starting it 3 times with the same thing happenning, on and off. It started but was running rough when idling. I drive it down the street to the stop sign and it shut off before I came to a stop. It took probably about 15 seconds of cranking to get it started again and everything was fine. The next morning the same thing except it was idling for probably around 30 seconds, I ran in the garage to get something and it died. Took a significant amount of time cranking and all was fine. It has probably been around 20-30 degrees at night. The car sat for about a week but it was started to move it around the driveway. Also, I have a leak in my gas tank/lines somewhere. I dont know where exactly but I know its there. Could moisture be getting in and freezing causing the gas flow to be obstructed. That is the only thing I can think of. Please help. Thank You Very Much!!

[Ryan]

Could be a bunch of things. Weak spark/distributor/plugs/wires, or maybe an intake/vac problem. Or a horrible timing problem... Going to need to do a few diagnostic procedures.

Check the strength of the spark. remove the longest plug lead and hold it about half an inch away from a ground, get someone to crank it, and check to make sure there's at least some spark.