Irratic idle
Irratic idle
Author
Discussion

markd67

Original Poster:

9 posts

149 months

Sunday 25th May 2014
quotequote all
Idle drops right down and even cut out!
Then idled at 1200 before settling out!
Just started doing it today??? And very intermittent

ukdj

1,004 posts

214 months

Sunday 25th May 2014
quotequote all
Have you checked/cleaned the stepper motor ?

EGB

1,774 posts

187 months

Sunday 25th May 2014
quotequote all
markd67 said:
Idle drops right down and even cut out!
Then idled at 1200 before settling out!
Just started doing it today??? And very intermittent
Mine did exactly this. Annoying. Less so now after stepper clean and squirt of WD40. Will dismantle stepper sometime and proper clean as done by Blitz. Stepper together with ECU gets 'lazy' with age.

markd67

Original Poster:

9 posts

149 months

Monday 26th May 2014
quotequote all
First job today!

FlipFlopGriff

7,144 posts

277 months

Monday 26th May 2014
quotequote all
Could be lots of things.
Mine did this for ages and it was a nightmare, stalling at junctions/roundabouts. The earth lead on the engine was almost through which helped a lot Change of ECU also helped.
Wobbly crankshaft damper change has pretty much eradicated the erratic idling.

Have you just filled up with fuel? I put some crap diesel in the other day (my daily driver) and its running badly so could be this simple.
Check plugs/leads/ignition modele/coil/fuel pump relay etc.

FFG

markd67

Original Poster:

9 posts

149 months

Monday 26th May 2014
quotequote all
Cleaned stepper motor this morning, which was quit clean!, some sooty deposits in hole though.
Also it was finger tight with no washer or ptfe??
Anyway its been fine this morning so fingers crossed!

Classichims

12,424 posts

179 months

Monday 26th May 2014
quotequote all
My stepper motor is clean yet still sticks every now and then, I'd be interested to know how you strip one down!
Someone told me the replacement steppers are unreliable and it would be better to sort the original?
Has anyone changed for a new one and does it work ok?

Ive taken to carrying an adjustable spanner and my ecumate, take it out, move it with ecumate then re install. Fine for awhile then does it again.
Sometimes I just switch the motor off, fire up again and it's fine!!!! Very odd.
Just another unreliable part me thinks.

yknot

8,997 posts

168 months

Monday 26th May 2014
quotequote all
Very easy to take stepper apart if you have rovergauge as you can wind the centre spindle out and back in again without the engine running.

Did mine as I had a slight idle issue and although it looked ok I decided to buy a new one. Transformed the car and now settles to idle nicely. I imagine that the idle motor wears in the position that is most used and becomes slightly 'sticky'; not surprising when you may have the original (in my case 19 year old) stepper motor still fitted?? Got mine from Racetech.

HTH