We had to go for nice little drive up the Hume today, about a 300km round trip, which was the first "big test" of the TS - and it passed with flying colours.

I took it nice and easy on the engine, but it had no problems whatsoever in either getting up to speed in reasonable time, nor in staying there. The temp gauge stayed pretty much rock solid on a little under half, even with aircon running the whole trip. I was amazed at how quiet it was inside the cabin, and how smooth it was overall. It is absolutely streets ahead of the VR that it has replaced (also a 94 model) in pretty much every way - I was already very happy with our purchase, and everything about today simply confirmed that we certainly did make the right choice.

The one thing I did notice was when we were in the macca's drive-thru grabbing a feed at the start of the trip. With the aircon on, the revs kept dropping several hundred from idle at around 1000rpm, almost as if it was going to stall - although it never actually did. With the aircon off, the revs still dropped periodically, although not as much. I'm guessing this means the ISC might need replacing? It seems like a pretty straightforward job to replace, but if someone could confirm this as a reasonable conclusion (ie. the ISC being at fault), that would be great before I go and spend money I don't need to! :)

Another happy Magna owner! lol

Hey happy magna owner! Woo so you preffer the magna over the VR commie aye? :D
Woohoo! Has yours got power windows?

Yeah mine does that too, it drops revs sometimes when air con is on and once it did turn itself off at the parking lot :confused:

But that can be fixed easily i reckon!

All the best and show us some pics of your ride when you have time! :thumbsup:

Hey happy magna owner! Woo so you preffer the magna over the VR commie aye? :D
Woohoo! Has yours got power windows?


Hell yes the Magna is better! :D I'd had the Commodore for a little over 2 years, and it was a really annoying car to drive on the highway. Maybe servicing the auto would have made a difference, but it really **** me to tears the way it always held gears for far too long (as autos tend to do even when good), and you could just *feel* the extra cost of all that fuel...

It does help that the Magna is a manual, and I finally have full control over my car again, but it was more than just that. Unfortunately it is manual windows only, but hey, I didn't have them on the Crummydore either, so I'm not too fussed. :)



Yeah mine does that too, it drops revs sometimes when air con is on and once it did turn itself off at the parking lot :confused:

But that can be fixed easily i reckon!

All the best and show us some pics of your ride when you have time!

So that's an affirmative on the dud ISC? Or at least slightly dodgy! I saw the thread which mentioned them on eBay, $90 seems quite reasonable for an easy DIY fix. I was thinking I might pull the PCV valve and give that a clean too. Hopefully the money for the Crummydore will be sorted tomorrow, and then I can book in the TS for the belt replacement (timing/alternator/aircon) and water pump. That should help keep it running nicely for a while longer.

I'll post some pics in the next day or two then. :)

Nah thats normal, my manual KS Verada and TS Magna (v6 manual) both do it.When the air is turned on the idle rises just above 1000rpm than drops to 800rpm on the TS and on the Verada its 700rpm.

Get your car up to operating temp.
Park on the side of the road, chuck her in neutral and watch the idle. Now flick to full A/C and Fan on full blast. If the revs drop, chances are its your ISC. I had mine replaced not long ago, that's what it was. If your car feels as though it'll stall when your stopped with the ac going, adjust that good old screw under the bonnet as a temp fix until you get the isc done.

don't forget that the thermo fan also makes the revs drop alittle but I don't think its that much

If it only drops and stays down that's perfectly normal, if it keeps going up and down it'll be your ISC :).

Get your car up to operating temp.
Park on the side of the road, chuck her in neutral and watch the idle. Now flick to full A/C and Fan on full blast. If the revs drop, chances are its your ISC. I had mine replaced not long ago, that's what it was. If your car feels as though it'll stall when your stopped with the ac going, adjust that good old screw under the bonnet as a temp fix until you get the isc done.

I'll give that a try next time I go out. If the ISC is dodgy, I wont worry about trying to fiddle with it, I'll just get a new one and replace it in the next week or so. It doesn't seem like a terribly urgent thing to fix, but it wont have to wait for too long either. Someone posted an eBay link to a guy selling ISC's for the 4cyl, and he's got new ones for the 6 as well, for $90.

oh, and it's booked in for next week to get a timing belt kit put through it, water pump replaced, and the accessory belts also. Dunno when they were last done, but I figure that should see us through for quite some time now! :)


If it only drops and stays down that's perfectly normal, if it keeps going up and down it'll be your ISC :).

It was going off like a yo-yo! Certainly didn't seem like normal behaviour at all...:nuts:

I'll check it properly before replacing it, but it does seem like there isn't much doubt, from what people are saying and what it's doing. Thanks.

Yeah, not much you can do but replace them :confused: luckily theyre cheap!

drove from sydney to melbourne in my 2.6 TR, awsome smooth drive, was great, looking forward to driving back at the end of the week :)

dont drive up hill with the air con on, got power? lol No. :P

drove from sydney to melbourne in my 2.6 TR, awsome smooth drive, was great, looking forward to driving back at the end of the week :)

dont drive up hill with the air con on, got power? lol No. :P

Uphill or downhill, it went great the whole way, even with the aircon on. No troubles at all, maybe the ISC was just trying to tell me that macca's is **** and just keep going? :nuts:

... So that's an affirmative on the dud ISC?
Might also pay to first check the electrical connections to ISC before replacing.

If your engine is sparkly clean like you say it is, chances are somebody could have
either steam or pressure cleaned it recently... water can get into the elec plugs etc.
Clean them up with a mini wirebrush and a squirt of WD40.

dont drive up hill with the air con on, got power? lol No. :P
with AstronII + aircon... you soon learn to flick the AC switch off :badgrin: before flooring it.

Especially when you need the extra grunt for safe 0-100 merging highway
or just pulling out of a sideroad into 80km/h traffic.


Most modern 4cyl buzzboxes do that automatically these days, dunno how they do it
(max vacuum sensor? floor'd throttle sensor?) but yeah the AC turns off automatically
if the loud pedal is flattened.


V6 in a 2nd gen shouldn't have that drama.

I swear that when you floor it in a 4 banger 2nd gen it does disengage the A/C. When it gets to about 3k the revs just go WOOOOOSH (as much as they can in a 4 cyl)

dont drive up hill with the air con on, got power? lol No. :P
LOL tell me about it :bowrofl:

In my old 2.6 ltr TS, drove to wollongong from syd with air con on once and couldn't tackle them grades. I was flooring it. Sounded like the car was going to explode :sook:
Poor astron

To check the Idle Speed Control Servo:

It has 6 terminals arranged as below.

l l
l l
l l

You should be testing each group of 3 separately. ie the black or the red above.

On a 2nd Gen about 85 to 90 ohm between the top and bottom ie the 2 red below:

l l
l l
l l

and about 30 to 35 and 55 to 60 between the centre of the group of 3 and the top or bottom.

Similarly for the other 3.

Hope this helps.

Rob

To check the Idle Speed Control Servo:


Hope this helps.

Rob

Indeed it does, thanks. I'll grab some WD40 when I do the shopping today, and give that a squirt first, and then check out the ISC itself when I get a bit more time.

headsup: WD40 now comes in a marker pen tube, real handy for terminal work like this!!

Wow are you serious??

Can't live without WD40 dead set

Get your car up to operating temp.
Park on the side of the road, chuck her in neutral and watch the idle. Now flick to full A/C and Fan on full blast. If the revs drop, chances are its your ISC. I had mine replaced not long ago, that's what it was. If your car feels as though it'll stall when your stopped with the ac going, adjust that good old screw under the bonnet as a temp fix until you get the isc done.

Did it again while getting chips at KFC this afternoon...must be some connection with fast food drive-thru's... :bowrofl:

I took a bit more notice of what it was actually doing this time. It sits there idling quite happily at around 900-1000rpm while aircon and thermo fan going. But when the fan cuts out, the revs drop to 500rpm before recovering to 700rpm after a couple of seconds, and staying there until the thermo fan comes in again at which point the revs return to 900-1000rpm. It seems to repeat that cycle quite consistently.

This doesn't quite seem to gel with what others have described in terms of ISC issues...unless I'm mistaken? Is this actually symptomatic of a problem (with the ISC or something else), or is it just normal behaviour?