I posted this in response to another thread titled "Abnormal High Idle"... My car is idling way too high! In park especially and when in drive, it'll go sixty km/h easily on it's own with my foot far from the accelerator. Used to be on and off when I first inherited the car... but since last night (lucky me) it's been doing this constantly! I was kind of hoping it's right itself as it's done in the past - however, not the story this time!

I've been reading online all about this problem and it's a 1986 760 turbo... I'm lead to believe that I need to clean the throttle body, so I'm off to Canadian Tire to find what I need to get the job done.

I don't know much about cars, but my father does. Unfortunately he lives 2 hours (highway driving) away... Is it a problem to drive my car for that long with such a high idle (even when in drive)?

I feel like I'm ruining my brakes (of course it's not a problem of the tires spinning) and my transmission... I can feel it react stiffly to me putting the breaks on. It feels like a rocket that wants to blast off! However I live downtown Ottawa, and that's not the best plan!

Regardless, I need to take it at least 30 mins outside the city to work on it (bylaws and such)... Should I be worried about catching fire or totally euchring the engine?

 

While there is a shot that the throttle body is so horribly gummed up, the fact that it used to be intermittant makes me think it is the iac motor. There is a simple trick to dropping your idle. You can simply take a needle nose set of vice grips and pinch off the air hose going from it to the throttle body. You don't actually pinch it completely closed, just enough to idle it down. Your car also has an idle adjustment **** under the TB. It's a black ****, iirc you turn it clockwise to lower the idle. If it is screwed all the way in and still revs to high, do the vice grip trick. Your symptoms do not harm the car in the short term, but on an elderly car it will certainly take its toll if not addressed relatively soon. Hard on brakes, heats up the transmission when sitting at a light and wants to race away, hard on u joints as it "clunks" into gear when parking and driving off in the am. Not the best for longevity! In the following photo, if you look on the driver's side of the engine right behind the power steering pump, you will see a vertical silver colored pliers handles. That is actually a set of hose clamp pliers, but vice grips work equally well in the short term. The pic gives you an idea where to look for the ~1" diameter hose.

 

Thanks! Turns out as soon as my dad spent like, 20 minutes looking at it - he found the adjustment **** below the TB and fixed it no problem!
Meanwhile I thought I was doomed! I took my car out to a friends place/garage and we spend a while working on taking out the TB so I could clean it - only to find that it was quite clean already! So that was extremely frustrating!

Thanks for the help - and I am more than relieved that she's as good as new again!

 

Great news!