Hi guys,

So, a couple of weeks ago someone decided they were going to drive along the side of my car, i was away for a week or so and i guess the alarm must have been going off as the battery was completely dead. I was pretty angry at the time, so i just left the car for a few weeks until i had a day off to get a new battery, anyway new battery fitted and the car starts, although it didn't rev straight up to 1500 ish rpm like normal on a cold start, but after a few seconds all seemed fine. I let the car run for a few minutes before moving off, had a listen under the engine bay etc, everything sounds as it should, got about 1/2 mile down the road and at the junction i notice the idle is high, around 2k+, and the engine management light has come on. I instantly turned round and parked the car back up, the car felt weird nursing it back and the idle didn't sound like it was running right anymore, again no knocking or anything like that.

I've seen a few people say about ECU resetting and leaving it to idle for 20-25 minutes before driving, but that seems a bit odd to me. I've got the weekend off, so i thought i'd see if anyone on here had any ideas i can try and have a go myself before giving in and going to the garage Monday morning.

Solved - It was the ICV Valve, for anyone with similar problems stumbling across this thread.

 

Idle control valve sticking. Remove and clean and refit but Whatever you do, do not remove it unless you have a genuine Subaru replacement gasket.