HELP!! 98 Camry starting issues!

My camry is having issues starting up. Over the past 3 months I've noticed a steady increase in the percentage of times the car:banghead: won't start without me pushing the gas down and throttling the engine til the car idles itself. Today was the first day that several attempts to throttle the engine didn't do the trick. Here's some interesting points:

1. I can hold the pedal where the engine is around 500rpms and still it idles beautifully....it just won't idle itself.
2. Back when the throttle trick worked, the car would eventually idle around 1000rpms.

If the engine runs fine when I'm manually controlling the rpms via the pedal.....why won't it start up by itself, or idle anymore? please help asap....I'm in dire need!

Thanks everyone,

John

First thought would be to clean the throttle body bore and plate and the IAC (Idle Air Control) valve.

I have to agree cleaning the throttle body and in particular the idle air control valve would be the place to begin. Here's a link to cleaning the throttle body. It's for a V6, but the I4 is essentially the same:

http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/maintenance/30_V6/throttle_body/

Mike