Idling & Power steering problem.... Help please !!!

[*Shane*]

hi guys hows it going
I own a 1997 mk4 6N VW polo (bought it last weekend)
Pics in the members ride section

Anyways on thursday i was coming home from work and near my house the car just cut out, i started it again and without any revs it would just die

I started to build the revs up while starting it,i kept the revs up and drove it home, no problems driving it home..... until i came to a set of traffic lights where i had to start gearing down.
As i put in the clutch to gear down the car just died again,the revs just totally dropped Sad

After gettin the car into the drive i started to inspect, looked around the engine to see if any hoses may have fallen off. Everything seemed grand.
Tried starting the car again after about an hour and it started but after about 3-4 seconds of ticking over the revs just dropped and it died. This went on for awhile.

Was told to use throttle body cleaner,couldnt do this till the next day cause all car shops were closed

Following dar after work We sprayed in carb cleaner and cleaned out the throttle body. Started up the car and it was ticking over at about 400-500 rpm and after awhile it jumped up to the normal rpm (800-900)

We took off the throttle body yesterday and cleaned it, wasnt even dirty but we cleaned it anyway. Put it back on and the car was ticking over fine at 800-900 rpm

*** since the other night (thurday) when it first happend and we got it
sorted (so we thought) the revs would drop to 400-500 when i was driving and went to change gear e.g from 2nd ---> 3rd gear while i had the clutch in the revs would drop below the normal idling position of 800-900 and went to 400-500 but after a second or two it would go back up

Why is this happening ????

Also..... When reversing or parking the car while its currently ticking over at 800-900,,,, the min i move the steering wheel and the power steering kicks in the revs drop to about 400 and the steering gets very very heavy and it feels like the car is about to cut out

what is the problem here ????

Sorry for this long ass post but if this aint sorted soon then im taking it to the main dealer

Some people said it might be the idle control valve etc etc

Can anyone shed some light on this ????????

thanks for reading

shane

[dragon_green]

from reading that, it could be the usual suspects (idle control valve, inlet temp sensor) but also it sounds like your power steering pump is putting a lot of strain on the engine. maybe worth looking at that, as it's driven off the engine.

[*Shane*]

will a diagnostics test tell me mate ???

[dragon_green]

it may do. vag-com (the diagnostics program) is quite extensive. it should tell you if any sensors are broken.

see if you can find a mate with the cable + software before you take it to a garage. if you do need to go to a garage, try to find a local VAG specialist who should have the proper software instead of a generic code reader. they should be cheaper than going to a main dealer, and a decent one will know their stuff.

[NOZ]

Hi mate, looks like you got a similar problem to my 16v which had idling probs, ts got worse as i've noticed the steering suddenly goes stiff once in a while. Look at my posts, you'll see what a few polo's have going wrong with idling probs.

[*Shane*]

seems grand now again mate

car is kinda constanly idling at 1k rpm though

sterring wheel sometimes goes stiff