Freelander engine races on idle

This is my first post so please be gentle with me!

My Freelander XEDI (1998 2.0L) has a tendency to rev-up to around 3000rpm when idling (e.g. at a road junction). As soon as I put my foot on the brake pedal the revs drop back to 1200rpm. Foot off the brake and the revs shoot up again. Also, when changing gear the engine does not drop back as it should.

It has been suggested that the brake-light switch might be faulty so I have replaced this already but it has made no difference. I have also checked the brake-light bulbs as well (another suggestion) but these seem OK (although I haven't actually changed them).

If anyone has any suggestions I'd be very grateful

Have you got a plastic throttlebody on it? They have a tendancy to stick holding the revs on. Later models had the modified metal throttlebody on.


Also the plastic vac pipe that comes off the centre of the inlet manifold, if that has an airleak, it causes high idling.

Thanks for the tip about the vacuum pipe, I'll check that out at the weekend. The brake-light switch is all-plastic construction (it is the "straight" type rather than the later L-shape type). Although not impossible, I'm kinda hoping that the new switch works properly and hasn't got stickiness built-in! I might give it a quick squirt of WD40 just as a precaution though!

Vissie said:

Have you got a plastic throttlebody on it? They have a tendancy to stick holding the revs on. Later models had the modified metal throttlebody on.


Also the plastic vac pipe that comes off the centre of the inlet manifold, if that has an airleak, it causes high idling.

Click to expand...

Its a diesel, wont have a throttle body.

I would be looking at the motor/potentiometer on the throttle pedal, personally...

No idea why i read 1.8ltr. Maybe i should sleep more

throttle position sensor

Thanks for your suggestions guys. In the end, I reset the throttle pedal potentiometer. I have doen this before with no success, but this time I made sure that there was no obstructions (mats, carpet etc.) and I also depressed the pedal by hand just in case my foot was fouling on the side and not going all the way to the floor. Anyway, the upshot is that the old girl has been behaving impeccable for the past 2 weeks so I am hoping the problem has been cured.

Good news