Engine stalls at idle

[Rover75]

Finally got to drive my rover home. After charging battery installing and cranking it up, it ran fine and idled perfect awhile I was checking to make sure battery was charging with meter. I started to drive it home and it starting stalling every time I stopped at a light or traffic. The engine light is on, solid, I don't remember if it was on when I test drove it or not. The only thing I did to it since I test drove was route the serp belt correctly. It has 74000 miles, 1998 disco. Any ideas?thanx in advance. Oh and the engine runs fine till I stop.

[Spike555]

Bad or dirty idle air control valve.
Try this, hold the throttle just a hair over idle speed, does it stay running?
Yes? Idle air control problem.
Clean the throttle body and remove the idle air control valve and clean them all with carb cleaner, use your ex wifes toothbrush to get the hardened stuff off if needed.

[Rover75]

Roger, I'll do it tomorrow, it stays running as long as I give it gas, should I clean maf as well, I saw they make a special cleaner for that? I know I'll be adding to the list soon, only one window works right, one back door lock operates slow and one not at all. There's a major steering box leak somewhere, hope it's just a hose. I noticed some oil pulled up on the timing chain cover? Between water pump and engine. Thanx

[Spike555]

Yes you can clean the MAF using MAF cleaner, just follow the directions to a "T".
One issue per thread please. It gets to complicated otherwise.

[Rover75]

Sorry about that, I was just throwing stuff out there

[Spike555]

No worries mate.

[Rover75]

Cleaned the iac, and it definetly helped but I've noticed that the majority of the vacuum lines are pretty much shot, i know they can effect the idle as well, I'm gonna get some tubing and start replacing.

[Spike555]

Good plan, keep us posted.

[schram04]

Man I feel your pain!first thought was bad fuel pump or relay, both checked out fine.i dont know what else to check. this seems to be a common problem with the disco, but no one seems to have a solution, just lots of expensive shit to trouble shoot. 94'disco sos! P.S. Whats an MAF ?

[Spike555]

MAF is mass air flow sensor, that is the thing thats plugged in in the air intake tube.
That is what tells the ECU how much air the engine is sucking it.
If that is bad/unplugged the ECU has no idea how much air the engine is using and will default to a preset parameter and make a educated guess based on the inputs from the other senors, TPS, coolant temp, RPM, etc.
Any one sensor failed and the engine will run, it might run rough but it will run, more than 3 sensors bad and it wont run.

[Rover75]

Yea after cleaning the iac that helped, plus a bottle of seafoam in the tank and driving the crap out of it with premium it seems to be doing pretty good, I'm gonna run ATF through the engine before oil change and seafoam the intake next weekend. Just got new wires and plugs that I'm installing tomorrow, hopefully.

[Spike555]

DO NOT PUT ATF IN THE ENGINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!

If you want to do a engine flush use a BG 109 oil change kit, ebay has them for around $25, there are 2 cans.
Or use a can of Gunk or other engine flush off of the shelf.
If you fill your engine with ATF and run it, even for a few min you could be looking at buying a new engine.
That type of "flush" does nothing anyway.

[Rover75]

I've read about it so much on here I thought it was an accepted practice. I'll look for that kit. Thanx

[Spike555]

Ever listen to Car Talk?
Tom did the trick of filling his engine with diesel fuel and idling it for 15 min to flush it out once, it smoked like a chimney fire after that.
Same thing with the ATF, it is not a lubricating engine oil, many have ruined their engine doing that.

[treville]

seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam seafoam

seafoam is magic land rover juice.... the cure all for all fuel related issues.... before you buy any expensive parts of dismantle ANYTHING buy a can of seafoam and dump it into a 1/2 tank of fuel, before that fuel is gone the problem will go away..... (In most cases that involve a fuel related issue)..... cant hurt...