Idle speed

[Toppy]

I carnt get me cossie to idle under 1000 i do as the manual says. But it aint going down. I can get it to up go abit and thats it.

[Magrah]

Toppy,

Does it have a idle speed control valve? If so may need replacing but dont bother phoning Ford as they want about £400!. Answer is stick your one in thinners for about 30 mins then petrol for a couple of days, that should loosen it up!

[Clint]

the correct method is to unplug the Idle speed control valve and then set idle to 950rpm - are you saying that it wont drop to 950 or that it rises to over 1000 when you plug the ISCV back in ?

[Toppy]

thats right it wont drop down at all

[Magrah]

Clint if i unplug my ISCV the tickover goes all over the place? 500-1400 it wont settle, as soon as I plug it back in it settles at around 900? My valve was sticking and again the idle would not setlle, Mark at BSW told me to do the above.

[stevedohc16v]

Idle speed can be a pain on the cossie, like Clint said the correct way to set base idle is to unplug the ISCV and set the idle to 900-950rpm, if it wont idle or does so erratically when this is done then unscrew the idle speed screw half a turn before you unplug the ISCV to raise the base idle a little before you check it.
If you can't get the idle speed down then take the idle screw right out and clean it up and give the bypass hole it came out of a good spray through with carb cleaner to get rid of any crap that may stop the screw seating properly also check the inlet side of things for any air leaks.
Uneven or erratic idle with the ISCV connected is usually the ISCV itself (try cleaning it or buy a new one ) or the other common fault is the water temp sensor telling the engine it's hot when it isn't or vice versa.

Steve

[Clint]

I would guess you have a leak in the plenum somewhere, you can test this by getting a can of easy start and spray it around the plenum if the engine speed rises you have a leak you can use a pipe on the end of the can to establish exactly where.