Is this normal?

[Autocross7]

Hi all. I have been out driving the Esprit today and I remembered to post this....

1988 with the Bosch jet-tronic injection...
I have my idle set just shy of 1000RPM (as per the manual). Of course, as is common, it runs higher until warm, but then it settles down and 'rubbles' (from my 3 year old) at 1000 and revs smoothly. However, if I go out for a drive, or I have been driving for a bit, the idle moves up to just over 1000RPM (never more than about 1100RPM) and this is - and has been a consistant thing since I have had the car.

Anyway, as I have had the car going on three years, I am not worried. I just wondered if this was normal for the 4 pot cars?

I had an AH Sprite and a Triumph Spitfire that always did this same thing. I figure maybe it is 'British motor thing'...

Drive topess!!!
Cameron

[teigan]

my car's older than yours, but it does just as you describe. never worried me in the slightest.

[Autocross7]

Cool. As I stated I never really got too worried about it, just wondered...

I am chalking it up to the motor getting good and hot and the oil etc... getting circulated "all the way". I was thinking about setting the idle after I had been running a while, but decided against it as it would prob. run crappy on start up if I did this.

Drive topless!!!
Cameron

[mr50bmg]

My '84 does exactly the same. In fact, I prefer the slightly higher idle as it is smoother and keeps the water pump circulating coolant a bit faster.

-Dave

[princecharming]

My '88 Esprit with Bosch used to do the exact same thing.

Over time, it gradually became worse when hot, being exactly where it should be after initial warmup and then driving perfectly for a while then suddenly getting up to 1200 and then later 1300 when really hot like in a traffic jam. Was so scared of cooking the clutch that I just shut it off.

When I got under there as it was doing this, I discovered how tight the cable was as it pulled the throttle open at idle. I re-adjusted the cable for a tiny bit more slack and it never happened again.

Keep an eye on it and if it gets worse, re-adjust the cable slack. It's easy to do with two wrenches.

Never did figure out why it pulled tighter when hot since I thought metal expands, not contracts as it gets hotter, but either way, it solved the problem.

Roy