Mi16 Stop Light And Poor Idle

[Will Eastman 6]

I am having a problem with very low idle when warm, this is so bad to the point when i let the rev drop the car will stall itself. I am led to believe that this may be due to a faulty ICV or TPS, how can I check these to see if they are at fault. Also my mi16 has no screw on the t-bodie meaning I cant tune it at all, is there any other way to raise the idle??

 

The other problem im having is that the STOP light coming on while the revs are dropping, i dont know why this is as all the gauges read fine, anyone have any idea why this keeps happening??

 

Just to add these problems only seem to happen when the car is warm.

[pug_ham 241 3 Cars]

The test for the TPS is the same as that listed for the 205 GTI 8v in haynes manual, they use the same simple TPS.

 

Basically you are looking for a closed circuit between the middle pin & one of the side pins at both closed throttle with the other pin giving the same at wot.

 

You should be able to run with the icv unplugged, iirc it will raise the idle slightly at all times but not by much.

 

There are a couple of sensors which can put the stop light on iirc, not just the main low oil pressure switch on the front of the block (which can fail) but also the high coolant temp switch.

 

g

[Will Eastman 6]

Just been out to have a little fiddle with the car. Im guessing the TPS is working fine as i got continuity between 2+3 on closed throttle and continuity between 1+2 on full throttle, and no continuity anywhere else.

 

The car wouldnt run without the ICV plugged in so duno what that means or how to find if its working??

 

I have checked the sensors and swapped two wires around, I changed the two wires on the stat housing so that the one triggering the coolant light is ontop of the housing (red wire on red sensor) and the wire triggering the coolant gauge is attached at the side, hoping this will solve some STOP light issues.

 

Also went to fill up the oil and found some mayonnaisey deposit, which I know is coolant in the oil. Duno where to go from here, am hoping it could be down to some issues iv had with stat housing leaking and some coolant pipes leaking. Any ideas what my next move is to do with this problem??

[Will Eastman 6]

Anyone?

[kyepan 291]

Look up the caps program it will show you how to set the idle. When was the oil last changed and what weight was used, as flickering stop light means the warm oil is getting a bit thin. You can replace the oil pump spring and sprocket and chain if it really bothers you. Or just use a slightly thicker oil.

[Will Eastman 6]

Yeh thought it was that. Pretty sure it has 10w40 in it thats only about 1000 miles old, but was just cheap carlube oil I think. Am planning to put fuchs 10w40 fully synth, do you think I should go for something different??

[davev 1]

it might not be so simple but if you say your revs are dropping to the point it wants to stall, then maybe its just the fact that the revs are so low thats bringing the stop light on.

 

similar to when you almost stall when pulling off(the whole dash will ligt up) but some how you can catch it and itll spring back to life.

Edited June 28, 2012 by davev

[pug_ham 241 3 Cars]

Yeh thought it was that. Pretty sure it has 10w40 in it thats only about 1000 miles old, but was just cheap carlube oil I think. Am planning to put fuchs 10w40 fully synth, do you think I should go for something different??

The cheap oil won't help imo, I know when I finsihed my last engine build & ran it on normal mineral oil for the first 500 miles the oil pressure was lower than I expected using the standard sender & guage but it has since been removed from the car ready to transplant into another so I don't know how this will improve once I've got a decent semi synthetic in but I'm pretty certain it will.

 

I'd use the Fuchs Titan XTR (or whatever its labeled now) rather than fully synthetic.

 

g

[Will Eastman 6]

I have now changed the oil, pump n sump. Although I have not taken the car for a very long drive I think the pressure issue has been solved. Thanks for all the help, now to sort out the idling issue