Rough idle

Hi All,
2000 X 1.8 petrol k series Freelander with 93000 miles done.
Hope someone has an idea on this....
I'm getting rough running from a cold start, almost feels like running on 3 cylinders or similar, but this clears within 100 yards then runs fine apart from an erratic tick over, it fluctuates up and down by about 1-200 rpm in traffic, but actually drives fine. Sometimes it will run fine from cold, most times not.
Reading on here I squirted about half a can of carb/injector cleaner down the idle control valve over the course of a couple weeks with the engine both on and off. But I did'nt remove it cos the bottom two bolts are a pain! I've also unplugged it and saw no difference. I tried unplugging the MAP sensor (LHS Fuel Inj rail) and the tick over became noticeably worse.
I've noted a distinct 'ticky' noise (not dissimilar to pinking but much quieter) from cold which clears after a couple of minutes. Finally, it leaks coolant from somewhere which I nor the garage can trace, just in case this could affect anything. Its not as rough as it sounds, honest!
Any replies greatly appreciated, if you think it could be another sensor could you give me an idiots guide to the location of it! Thanks a lot

If you are loosing coolant and it's running rough, it could be the inlet manifold gasket has failed. This allows coolant to enter the combustion chamber, giving symptoms like yours.

Ive run my hand under the inlet manifold gasket before and found no trace of coolant, but i guess as you say, it could be leaking internally, although there is coolant on the floor. i'll have another check of this, thanks for the reply

Cmdrsilverfox said:

Ive run my hand under the inlet manifold gasket before and found no trace of coolant, but i guess as you say, it could be leaking internally, although there is coolant on the floor. i'll have another check of this, thanks for the reply

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It's not uncommon for the inlet manifold gasket to draw coolant into the inlet tract. Don't forget that the inlet gasket is under a powerful vacuum. The gasket its self is nothing more than a complex shaped O ring. They fail reasonably often but thankfully are cheap to replace.