marcp

My car was stalling and surging so I cleaned my idle control valve with brake cleaner about 3 months ago. The problem got better but the surging continues although it doesn't stall out anymore. Should I replace or clean the ICV? Should I hook up my car to a vag-com to find the problem?

Kris Hansen

did you say you used BRAKE cleaner on it? That stuff is pretty harsh.. I use Carb/throttle body cleaner, and even that is a little harsh.

The only thing cleaning it does is allow free movement, it doesn't fix the thing if it's not working right. Did you check the resistance per the Bentley?

Chulsoo

I also have a 96 2.8 A4 and just recently it's been having the exact same problem. I took it the dealer the other day and they said I may have to get a new Idle Control Valve. The valve cost $276.05 and they told me they would charge 2 hours labor, I didn't have that kind of money on me, so instead they boosted the idle speed from 7000 RPM's to 8000 RPM's using the VAG tool. So far so good, hasn't stalled on me yet, and noticed a definite decrease in surging, almost none. They said the Vag diaginosed the problem w/ the ICV as being sporadic and not a hard error code, so the boost in idle speed should do the trip, but if it stalls again replace the ICV. Let me know how things turn up... I gonna try cleaning the ICV this weekend. Also do you know if any harm comes from raising the idle speed?