I picked my Hawkeye STI up on Sunday (first ever Impreza for me!) and I noticed that the idle speed once warmed up is round the 500rpm mark. It almost sounds like it's on the cusp of stalling and I have actually stalled her a few times pulling slowly out of junctions and even once reverse parking (hangs head in shame!).
I don't want to give her big revs when manoeuvring slowly and look like some typical chav in his gold wheeled, big spoiler and loud exhaust motor but at the same time I don't want to look like a **** stalling my performance car whilst parking haha!

Should the idle be that low or could it be that it's not been set up quite right after the engine rebuild?

Had a search through and can't find the answer to my question so hopefully this won't be one of those threads that pop up constantly from newbies!

 

Anyone able to cast any light on this?

 

idle control valve or possibly front 02 sensor

 

Cheers fella

 

550rpm with no load is fine, expect the idle to rise to approx 600-650rpm with an electrical load on the engine or air con. My hatch Idles low and always has done. we can lift the idle speed with the SSM3 if its going annoy you, but if for some reason the battery goes flat or the ecu is reset it will go back to preset factory mode.

The idle speed is pre determined by the ecu which was programmed at the factory not by us.

if the IACV was faulty you'd get a fault code instantly as the ecu knows its not right and it would run like a bag of **** as it's drawing in air that's not needed. as for the O2 sensor again uneven Idle speeds and lots of hunting as it would try to constantly maintain lambda 1 and couldn't.

If your still concerned call in and see me mate I'll run through it with you with the SSM3

 

No that's spot on cheers Rob. Stan rang me back and said he'd spoke to you to confirm it was normal - I'm just not used to it being so low lol. Cheers for your help again mate, much appreciated.