Hello everyone. I own a 1994 Lancer GLi (4G15 engine) with 87,000km. on it. After purchasing the car I noticed that the engine wouldn't idle up when the airconditioning was turned on. I took it to my usual mechanic, but they couldn't find the problem. So we went to another mechanic who specializes in fuel injected/electronically controlled engines. He immediately found that the idle control servo was defective. He also said that he already encountered others with the similar problem (apparently this is inherent in older Lancer models), and upon replacement of the servo, the problem usually comes back. So we came up with a "solution". We just left the servo as is, and replaced it with a mechanical system. First they installed an actuator--pretty common device, and attached the terminals to the aircon compressor, so it would activate when the aircon is turned on. Then tapped an air hose (not sure which one) to supply airflow to the actuator. Then attached a sort of vacuum hook to the throttle body. When the actuator is activated by the aircon, it also activates the vacuum hook and pulls the idle "thingy" (the one where the accelerator cable is attached to), and brings the rpm up to 1,000. Problem solved.
I just would like to know if anyone else has tried this, and if there would be any ill-effects to this procedure? The car runs fine, and engine idle is sufficient when the airconditioning is turned on. I can see that it's a pretty simple fix, and I only spent about $20 (parts and labor).
Hope to hear your opinions on this. Pictures below:
Defective idle control servo... Improvise!
