After 10 years reliable service, my 1996 Felicia 1.6 has started to misbehave in traffic. The already low idle speed seems to have dropped even lower to just above 500rpm and when the car is driven in traffic, especially with a heavy electrical load on the engine, ie when the fan cuts in, it frequently stalls when I lift my foot off the accellerator. The revs don't drop back to idle evenly but stutter and sometimes drop too low, thus cutting out. This makes the car very difficult to drive in heavy traffic (which is most of the time for me unfortunately!). Everything appears visually to be in good condition and the car has recently been serviced so plugs etc should be okay, so I am assuming the problem is connected with the ECU or the throttle body or some such. Is there any way of raising the idle speed slightly as I'm sure it is too low and leaves absolutely no margin for error?

Clive

i think it will either be the coolant sensor go wrong or the trottle body needs cleaning...

Sounds like the same problem I had at 90,000 - cured by cleaning the throttle plate/ bore. What mileage is yours at?

I don't believe there is any way to adjust the idle on the 1.6 - it's controlled by the ECU.

yeah, the idle speed isn't adjustable

Mileage is 83000, much of that in heavy traffic, so I guess it could be a bit clogged up!

I have a 1.3 and I'm about to clean my throttle body for the following reasons.

When in a traffic jam the acceleration and deceleration isnt smooth, especially the engine breaking, it kangaroos alot, however, there is about 2 inches of play in the accelerator pedal so shall I do that 1st before tinkering?

My car is a w reg but has only done 21000 so Im assuming that it may have been driven slowly in and around town by some old dear and hasnt been cleaned out with a good run in its life.

One more query - Haynes manual recomends oil change every 5k mls, I do this in 3 months, should I be doing this that often or does that refer to low mileage cars?

if you've got 2 inches of play in the pedal try adjusting the cable first

Don't over tighten the cable, leave a little slack in it - too tight and you can get running problems.

Mileage is 83000, much of that in heavy traffic, so I guess it could be a bit clogged up!

Sounds like very similar symptoms to mine and close to the same mileage. Worth giving the throttle a clean before any money is spent.

Also, if I remember correctly, unplugging the throttle sensor will flag up error codes on the diagnostics which will need to be reset - so best not to unplug anything unless you have a reset device.