Dying at idle

[AlexKing]

Hi All,

I've encountered a bit of a problem with my MX-5 - only the second of any significance in the 145K miles it's covered since we bought it new... Helpfully, it's chosen to do this while we're temporarily a one-car household, having bid farewell to our RX-8 yesterday...

From a read of the common faults Wiki, it seems like it might be the ISCV problem, but the linked document hurts my head a bit and I'm not clear from reading it whether my symptoms match, so I'm hoping you can give me some guidance in laymans terms...

Symptoms are - car runs and idles fine in free flowing traffic, but after a few minutes of stop/start city queues the idle goes very low and lumpy, usually followed by the engine dying if I don't catch it with the throttle. Sometimes it fires again straight away, sometimes not, and I have to wait about 5 minutes for it to want to start up again.

This actually started happening about 5-6 months ago, but only happened once or twice then rather than most days now, so it seems like it's getting worse.

I've experienced the coil packs going before, and its not like that.
So..
Do you think it is the ISCV?
If so is it worth just giving it a clean and trying that?
Is WD40 OK for this or will that bugger it up permamnently?
Can anyone post a photo of where the ISCV sits in the engine bay to help me find it?

If you don't think it's the ISCV, any other suggestions are appreciated...

[AlexKing]

Hmmm, no replies. Maybe that's because I failed to mention it's a 2001 MK2 1.6.

Whoops!

Any ideas folks?

[grumbledoak]

My parents had that for years in a Peugeot that they gave me.

Change the battery.

[AlexKing]

Not that - had a new battery about 500 miles ago. The alternator's not squeaking and looks fine too, so I doubt it's electrical.

I've squirted some cleaner in the iscv anyway so we'll see if that's helped.

[AlexKing]

In case anyone else has this in a MK2, I can report that a liberal squirt of WD40 into the air intake port of the ISCV (accessed by removing the main air intake hose where it connects into the inlet manifold), has cured this problem. Hooray!