Hard start during the day(after initial morning "cold" start that is fine).

Are you the original owner? If not do you have any prior maintenance records. It sounds like a fuel delivery issue of some sort. Injectors? Another issue has been the intake plenum failure but that will usually throw codes. Just throwing some things out there. Have you ruled out rodent damage?

 

Thank you. Yes, original owner. No obvious rodent damage...but the fact that the issue is predictable and repeatable tells me it is something they should be able to figure out easily...yet the issue remains