I have a felicia 1.9d (before facelift) which is in pretty good condition but i am now having a problem with the idle revs going up very high for short periods, at traffic lights and the like.

I've done a little google reading and it seems to me that this could be the 'fuel idle regulator', what are your opinions on this diagnosis? Is this an easy part to replace? Could i go to the scrappers and simply remove another part from a similar engine (volkswagen/skoda/seat)? Obviously, considering the value of the car i want this fixed as cheaply as possible.

All help is appreciated!

edit: oh yeah, i love the forum too guys, i'm usually a lurker but searched and wasn't able to find an answer to this particular bunch of questions.

It sounds plausible, but isn't a "usual fault" indeed.

I might be able to help further, but I'd need to know which injection pump this model uses.

Where about would i find that information? I'm not much of a mechanic i'm afraid! I've just checked and my coolant levels are very low, would this possibly have something to do with it? The engine temp never gets much over half way on the instrument panel.

Give it time; someone who knows the pump model will be along, and then I may have a helpful manual to hand.

Coolant level shouldn't affect engine idle speed, but if it's low it won't do the engine any good, or leave you a safety margin. It's normal for the temp gauge to be about half-scale when the engine's at full normal running temperature (well unless you've got Lucas electrics , which you don't).

ok, the idle regulator wont have enough 'play' to make it run very fast it merely acts as a kind of stabilizer which boosts the speed a litlle (roughly +/-200rpm say) when more load is applied to the engine, when you say very fast what do you mean? 2000rpm?? 4000rpm??..

i would say that either the throttle lever is getting jammed open a little or maybe the throttle cable is too tight, there is a kind of circular spring which the throttle lever uses to force it back to it's home position when no pressure is applied to the pedal, give it a spray with some wd40 and also check that the lugs haven't broken off the ends of the spring, with the engine off try actuating the thorttle lever by hand and see if it springs back to the idle speed stop screw on it's own

It hasn't happened recently so i'm hoping its just an intermittent fault that isn't serious. I'd say the revs went up by at least 1000rpm. There wasn't any play in the throttle so i don't think it was related to that.

I'll report back if i have any more problems, thanks for the help anyways.