how often do you clean your idle speed control valve ?

[PYNEY]

hi all

last couple of days my s3 has been a bit lumpy on low revs in high gears
i had this happen 8 months ago and it turned out to be a faulty iscv

this was replaced and the car has been fine untill now
so i've done approx 2,000 miles since this was replaced , i have given the iscv a good clean
and put it all back and my car is running fine now

i would have thought that this iscv from new would only need cleaning every 20,000 miles ?

how often do you clean yours ?

cheers keith

[F908 Tim]

Does seem rather excessive at 2000 miles!
Do you need a new air filter and did you also clean out the intakes to the plenium chamber around the butterflies? If they are very dirty they could still be dumping dust and crud into the idle speed valve. Tim

[GreenV8S]

Is it actually dirty when you clean it? I wouldn't expect it to get significantly dirty in 2000 miles unless the engine is blowing unusual amounts of oil into the intake, but I wonder whether there may be an electrical issue which you're fixing by accident when you remove it for cleaning.

[PYNEY]

the iscv didn't seem that dirty or the butterfly/intake , the engine is running lean at the moment from the recent mot test
i also disconnected the battery when i took off the iscv so maybe this has reset the ecu ?
and sorted any electrical fault ?

[tvrgit]

inspired (or reminded or shamed into action - however you want to look at it) into action by this thread, I decided to clean my ISCV today - and found this:



The gasket has been sucked inwards on the engine side of the airbleed channel (the gasket is on its side in that photo - the engine side of the throttle butterfly is at the top) so the engine has been sucking in air...

Made a new gasket, cleaned the valve, put it all together again. Haven't been out in it yet though...

[PYNEY]

tvrgit , for some reason i was looking at your website just 10 mins ago "spooky" and
came across your post for todays events and your note on the iscv
glad i could help with reminding you to check the valve lol

i'm in suspence now as to whether you have cured your problem ? "great website by the way"

cheers keith

[tvrgit]

PYNEY said:

tvrgit , for some reason i was looking at your website just 10 mins ago "spooky" and
came across your post for todays events and your note on the iscv
glad i could help with reminding you to check the valve lol

i'm in suspence now as to whether you have cured your problem ? "great website by the way"

cheers keith

I might try it tomorrow if I get time (and if the truant officer isn't watching) and I'll let you know.

Thanks for the comments on the web site btw - I've got "Diary OCD" but it's good to know that I'm not the only person who reads it.