idle speed solenoid valve

[rickuk72]

does anyone know if the idle speed solenoid valve is supposed to be running constantly before engine has started ?
when checking lghts today i turned electrics on.....could here something buzzing at the back......sounds like its stuck of something. engine starts ok.....but has started to cut out alot lately.....while driving.......could this be the problem ?

have a 99 v6 grand espace

[Elmo the Espace]

Hi
The idle control valve, will run when the ignition is turned on and gives of a low pitched buzzing noise as it is a electric motor.
If your Espace is cutting or will not idle then you can try removing the  rubber pipe from air filter to icv and rubber pipe from icv to inlet manifold and spray WD40 down the throat of the valve making sure not to squirt down the rubber hoses.
Rubb the residue WD40 away.
you could leave the ignition on whilst doing this then  turn off before removing residue.
Im not a great lover of using brake or carb cleaner and dont poke any moving parts with a screw driver.
If your v6 uses oil or breathes heavily then it usily collects in the rubber hoses and clogs the icv. A good Icv should give 38-42 ohms between pins 3 and 5, 18-22 ohms between  pins 3 and 4, 18-22 ohms between 4 and 5 to check this remove plug and check valve with AVO.
pins 3 and 5 come from the ECU and pin 4 from the fuel pump relay to fuel pump circuit.
Hope this helps.

[Anders Dinsen]

The most frequent problem on the 24v engines must be the water temperature sender failing, and this will cause rough running and complete stalls. When it fails, the sensor tells the ECU that the engine is ice cold (like -30 deg C). The ECU responds to this by enrichening the mixture, and this will make the engine start cutting out.

You need to have the engine running while hooked up to a computer to see it, and the ECU may not have detected that the sensor is faulty, so there will not necessarily be a fault code on this part, so often the best bet is to just replace it - if the problems goes away, you found the faulty part. If not, the search will have to go on. There may be a fault code on the oxygen sensor, but try the temperature sensor first.

The sensor is visible from above on the right side of the engine (viewed from the front). It has a green 2-way Bosch-type connector on it.

- Anders