Quote:
Originally Posted by saand
One of my car mods was to decrease the idle of the car which gave a fairly good improvement (about 20 % when idling)
I turned down the idle control screw (the mechanical idle control) which sets the lowest the idle will go to
Then i also put a switch in the cabin to stop the ECU increasing the idle using the IAC valve mentioned in past posts. This ended up being a switch which put the ECU into a "diagnostic/tunning" mode which is used to tune the idle. I found that it just caused the ECU to stop compensating for low idle
So now when i get to stop lights or when im in neutral coasting i will flip the switch and my idle will go down really low to about 600 rpm (probably lower than it should) but engine hasn't stalled yet and it also has not damaged itself from bad lubrication either although it is probably shortening the life a bit.
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I like the idea of being able to turn the IAC off. Definitely something to consider. While generally I think the computer probably knows better than me and Arragonis' suggestion brings up yet another appliance that could play a role, there are definitely times where I'm going to want to override the higher idle.
BTW, I had a 1989 MX-6 (with a 5 speed, but the same 2.2 liter, 12 valve engine). Probably my favorite car ever. Great car in the snow, 32-36mpg for normal driving (up to 38 on the highway), lots of room for passengers and the only unscheduled mechanical problems I ever had was exhaust parts (one muffler under warranty followed by three more, plus an exhaust manifold before I sold it with 180k (and he drove it to 232k and replaced the muffler one more time)). Slightly jealous you still have one... Also wondering why they ever stopped manufacturing the 1989 MX-6. If they still made it, I'd still be driving one.