Land Rover Repair: 1994 Land Rover Discovery, land rover discovery, code scanner

Question
Hi John,

I own a 1994 Land Rover Discovery 1. Recently, when stopping in traffic or at lights, the rpms have been moving up and down erratically and the car feels as though it is about to stall (which it would if I didn't keep pushing the accelerator to keep it going). Other than when i'm coming to a stop it seems to run fine.

From what I have read the problem may be related to the Air Intake Control Valve.

Assuming that is the problem, and please let me know if it doesn't seem like that could be the problem, I have tried to find a guide to cleaning this part, but everything i have found seems to be very complicated and I don't want to turn a small issue into a DIY disaster and something that stops me from using car.

So in your experience and giving advice to someone who is not highly mechanically experienced, is the cleaning or replacement of this part something that I would be able to do without causing a bigger problem to the Disco? I have read that if you replace the part you might need to reset the timing or something, is that correct.

Thanks for your help John, it is greatly appreciated.

Regards
Sam

Answer
If the valve is failing it could cause idle to flutter.  But the best course of action is probably to find a shop with a T4 or Autologic system, and let them look at the live data stream to see what's actually going on.  That's probably going to be more effective than just guessing.  You need the specialist LR test gear to see that data stream; a generic fault code scanner won't give it to you