UK Car Repair: Rover 216 1996 Automatic Stalling problems., rover 216, compressions

Question
The car works fine when idling, but when the gears move to Drive with the brakes on, the idling is more irratic and sometimes stalls.  Not sure what's wrong.. Do you think I should change the spark plugs or is it more serious like the coil needing replacement?

Answer
In this situation you need to do some basic checks, certainly you could check the spark plugs, But you need to first check the engine compression on each cylinder to make sure it is not a serious problem.  If the compressions are ok you can do tune up work.