MGA-Register

Fast Idle

I’ve had an increasingly severe problem where my car idles at about 2000 rpm, especially on hot days. I’d always put this down to old carburettors, a build up of sticky petrol sediment causing the throttle spindles to stick. I used to blip the throttle to get it to return to normal, which occasionally worked. This whole problem came to a head on the Sunday at Silverstone when moving in the slow traffic to enter the event, the tickover of my car gradually increased to 3000 revs, which made it very awkward to move along at slow speed. At some points it almost felt as if the clutch was slipping due to the slow movement and high revs. I borrowed some WD40 from George Dutton and gave the carb spindles a good soaking thinking that this would cure it but to no avail. It was at our time of departure that Barry Davies suggested that I check the Dampers. On removal of the Damper Piston I found a distinct lack of oil. I caught one of the traders just packing up who was able to sell me a small bottle of Carburettor Damper Oil, I believe this is similar to 3 in 1 oil. We filled the Dampers and then found that one of the small links connecting the two carburettor spindles was slightly loose. Once this was tightened we started the engine with a definite improvement. On driving the car for a few miles I noted a marked improvement on tick over and the car felt altogether much more responsive. I shall remember this one in future.