2001 saturn sl1

My friend has a 01 sL1. She tells me it'll start but shuts right back off, and wont start. she did say it'll start if she give it some gas, if not, the car wont start at all. She also mention, that she smells gas fumes after the car finally starts. i have no idea whats going on. the check engine light doesn't come on though. Any help is greatly apreciated.

first off,"giving it some gas" doesn't apply to fuel injected engines. anyway. the pcm could be feeding too rich of an air/fuel mixture to the engine due to a cracked/faulty engine coolant temp. sensor. pushing the "gas" pedal down all of the way inhibits fuel cutoff for the engine. it's called "clear flood mode". this stops the fuel. and allows the engine to burn some of the excess fuel, without feeding more into it. i haven't read all the threads on this site, but i'm sure there are at least a hundred on this subject.

I'm thinking stuck IAC valve and the "giving it gas" opens the throttle just enough to let air in when the IAC valve isn't letting it in.

I agree with ksion15 about the temp sensor, they are known to crack. But also check the throttle postion sensor (tp) sensor. I wouldn't think it would be the IAC motor, it usually just causes erratic engine rpm