Hi, new poster here - and a total novice about cars :oopssign:

Got a 1995 TS Executive wagon, 2.6l. It idles very low, and whenever it goes below 1000 rpm the engine dies. Cuts out at the lights, cuts out when I'm making a turn or whatever. Very annoying.

I've seen a few people with similar problems here, and spoken to some friends, and I've been told that I've either got to fix the idle speed control or the manifold absolute pressure sensor. Now, I don't know what either of these things are or where to find them. My question: in y'alls experience, would fixing either/both of these solve my problem? And is it something an idiot could do, or, is it something a garage could do cheaply?

Thanks if anyone can help. Also, I'm just trying to fix it up for sale here, so if anybody's in Perth and wants it, make an offer. :D Fair warning: it's pretty beat up

Cheers
Bart

is it carby or injected ? auto or manual?

if carby bring the idle up

if efi could be a lot of things

dirty fuel filter to TPS or air flow metre

Auto, and I believe it's fuel-injected? But I had to google that so I could easily be wrong. Built May '95 if anybody knows if that's before or after they switched.

i would look at the dissy and timing
possibly plugs

see what others say and think

idle control motor....mine was doing the same thing and now it runs better than new !!

Possible culprits in order of most likely (As far as I know)

ISC motor (Check the passageways for the throttle body aren't caked full of carbon, if they are a new ISC won't help you much)
Bad injectors (Terrible spray pattern, can test by d/c ignition coil, remove fuel rail keeping injectors connected, blast onto A4 paper, see if they squirt or "Spray")
Weak Ignition Coil
Bad Ignition Leads
Bad power transistor
Maybe bad dizzy
Throttle position sensor out (Output incorrect)
Clogged fuel filter
Someones stuffed with the idle speed screw without grounding the ignition timing retard pin
Bad fuel pressure regulator

BUT The way I think of it is this, air, spark, fuel, timing >>> You need those four things for an engine to run right, inspect by area, and eliminate possible causes. There's just a bajillion possibilities but you need to go through process of elimination.

You could say take out the coil, use a hair dryer to heat it up to similar to engine bay temp, and check resistance against factory specs -
Primary 0.72 to 0.88 Ohm, if you heat it up a great deal and it goes way out of spec, it's fecked.
-Secondary 10.29 to 13.92 kOhm,

will tell you if it is OKAY, same for power transistor, etc etc.

I have a pdf copy of the workshop manual if you want it.