Inability to idle when cold...any ideas ?

[993 C4]

I'm very excited ( as you can probably tell looking at the time of Saturday morning that I am posting this thread ! ) because I am very close to becoming the proud owner of lovely RS.
However, I am also a little concerned.
As from cold during the initial test drive, she was unable to idle without stalling and even during the initial 5 + miles of driving, the only way to prevent her from stalling was to constantly 'feather' the throttle. I have read the excellent thread from RS Gulp on a very similar issue, but having studied the past paperwork, this car has also had a replacement starter motor. I guess I was wondering if this was replaced due to the previous owner having the same problems and having to constantly re start her after stalling.
Assuming all of the hoses are nice and tight, what other areas do you think should be looked at proir to collection ?
Your advice would be much appreciated chaps.

 

[Melv]

Get an inspection done -could be leaky vacuum hose, or just too low tickover with lightweight clutch???

 

[993 C4]

Many thanks.....so not likely to be anything too serious then, one would have thought ?

 

[Matt]

both my old cup car and the current rs had/have eccentric tickovers..

the current car will idle perfectly unless theres a queue of traffic/traffic jam/town centre when it will then refuse to idle at all and require constant dancing feet on all 3 pedals simultaneously. this does not happen after 5 minutes in the jam but upon aproaching it..if i choose to do a load of stop start driving however with no traffic jams it works perfectly

being a lazy ar5e i've not bothered to check the hoses but instead put it down to the fact that the car has got a personality of its own and hates traffic jams. it also reminds me of my first VW Beetle as well.
i'll be checking the hoses next year

 

[Laurence Gibbs]

Cars that have sat with long periods of inactivitity will also benifit from reseting the dme (remove the battery and reconnect) and good long spirited drive. This will help reset the dme parameters, charges the battery and thus often cures the poor idle. In fact charge the battery first if the car has sat for a very long time without trickle charge.

 

[Mark Elder]

Not an RS but my car is very liable to stall on idle if fuel is pure 95 octane. It's OK as long as the mix in tank means the octane is above that.

 

[Melv]

What they say and it may just need a good thrash to clear it out!!

AKA, an Italian tune-up!![]

 

[993 C4]

Thanks chaps . That all makes sense and has put my mind at rest somewhat.

Cheers,

Nick.

 

[rskiwi]

If you have just got the car maybe the battery had been disconnected recently.
States in the hand book to let it idle for 15 mins after reconnection of battery which resets the DME.

Jeff