Hey everyone! I have this issue with my 1993 WRX (conversion) and I hope you guys can help me out with it.

This problem seems to only occur on cold starts during winter. When I start the car up in the morning, it idles very low at about 100 for a few seconds then either jumps up to 1,500 rpm or slowly dies to 0 and the engine stalls. The car has a JDM cluster and the "CAT overheat" light flickers when the car first starts.

After the car has started properly, the engine hesitates quite a bit while driving for the first few minutes. For example, I take this corner in 2nd and as I press on the accelerator the car just stops. It's as if the brakes were applied. I have to quickly press on the clutch and gas quite a bit to get the car moving again. If I come to a stop and put it in neutral, the engine would occasionally just turn off. The CEL never comes on during all of this.

This all only happens when the car is first turned on. After the engine has warmed up, it drives perfectly. The car was serviced a couple months ago and they cleaned out the throttle body. The mechanic said he can't find the diagnostic plugs to check for stored codes because they have been removed for some reason. Is there any other way to check the codes?

Any suggestions or possible fixes would be appreciated!