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Hi my 1.6 cti engine wont idle properly no matter what i try to do unless i turn the idle screw in then it obviously over revs. The supplementary air device seems to be working fine, pinching its feed pipe from the throttle body starves it at least and it is closing inside, when its at normal temperature its seems to idle sort of ok, its a lot more managable at least, but still cuts out after a bit of rough idling. This is really starting to annoy me to the point of slamming doors and wanting to kick the car to bits and thats the last thing i want to do since im trying to restore it. Apart from this it runs spot on its very rapid and very fast doesnt burn any oil although it does seems to smoke a bit when its cold. I can sort of make it better by altering the air screw in the throttle body but this always results in a lot higher idle speed when its warmed up. An oddity with the whole thing is im getting grey sludge in the top of the oil breather and the pipes that are connected to it but it uses no water at all and the oil level hasnt dropped in the 8 months ive owned it. What should i be looking at or thinking of changing? I know this is probably the most common problem on this engine so any ideas anyone? Cheers Andy

Is it normal that the idle speed drops by 10-20 % when the lights are turned on ? I have to keep the idle speed about 1200 rpm (with lights off) to prevent stalling when the lights are turned on. The car had a new battery recently. The measured volts does drop a bit under load. Is this drop in idle speed normal or is the alternator not putting out enough current ? Or should I look elsewhere for a the problem ?