Erratic idle fixed! - For TCS 9000s only

[Alanb]

Ever since I've owned my car I've put up with an intensely irritating idle, which misses every 10-15 seconds. I had presumed that it was a symptom of something serious rather than something silly. For a change, I was proved wrong.

The most common cause of an uneven idle with non TCS cars is a dirty AIC valve and/or dirty throttle body. However, on TCS equipped cars there is no AIC and the throttle plate can't easily be moved for cleaning purposes.

Finally, today I took a good look at my car to figure out what I could do. I took off the rubber inlet pipe, which is attached to the throttle body. Then I removed the pipe which is attached to the top of throttle mechanism from it's point of origin (which is near the false bulkhead). I sucked hard on this pipe and watched as the throttle plate turned 90 degrees. I bunged the end of the pipe, to maintain a vacuum and set about cleaning the throttle plate and throttle body using carb cleaner and a tooth brush.

Once I had reconnected the pipes, I started the car and was amazed to find that the car settled down to a stumble-free idle.

I had little faith that it would work because I presumed that a dealer-serviced car like mine would have had its throttle plate cleaned regularly. In fact, it looked to me as if the plate had never been cleaned.

Alanb