'97 - Rough Idle
 

Hello,
As the subject says, I've been experiencing a rough idle on my '97LX (1.5l, ATX, 56k). Basically, the car starts fine and will idle fine until the engine reaches normal operating temperature. Then at every stop, the engine dives to about 400-200rpm for about 5 seconds and then usually heads back to a more normal 700rpm. It has yet to stall on me, but it has only been doing this for 2 days, and I want to put an end to this before it gets worse. I've seen the same subject come up on websearches, but no one has given any definite answers. A few point to the EGR valve/sensor. Other than this, the car appears to be running normally. It just had the oil changed and I got a new air filter and battery.

I was hoping someone here may have had the same problem and managed to get it fixed. Apparently this happens to more than just Proteges, so it sounds like a sensor to me. Sorry if this came up before, but I'm a newbie here and couldn't find anything about it.

I've had hte same problem and mostly solved it so far by changing the fuel filter and cleaning he throttle body (I didn't clean it well enough as I didn't have any degresser with me). That seemed to solve the problem, but considering I did both at the same time, I can't tell what fixed it.

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, this is unusual. Today, it barely did anything noticable. It's probably 55-60F outside, the kind of weather that cars love, so I wonder if this has any effect. I did notice that the shop forgot to change the air filter (as they didn't charge me for it). So I bought a filter and did it myself (the place where I take it will change it at the cost of the filter), I noticed the filter housing came open rather easy, which made me wonder if it wasn't secured all the way. Since the change, the problem seems less pronounced (on non-existent), but I will have to keep an eye on it just to be sure. I may get a bottle of injector cleaner, too. Any opinions on the best brand?