Car revving without using pedal.

[Holik]

Hi, I've got a 52 reg Citroen xsara Picasso desire, 1.6l petrol 76k.
The past few days my car jut randomly stalls mid drive some times tends to be when I'm slowing to turn or go down hill, and yesterday my car did something quite odd, I was idle at the lights, handbrake on not in gear and my car just starting revving excessively by itself, like it was going to set off, so i tried to push the throttle in and it just sounded worse. But weirdly enough when I went back into gear to drive off, the revving stopped and my car sounded normal again. I was in a panic as I thought my car would just zoom straight off into the car in front, as soon as I took the hand brake off but thankfully it didn't.

I've been driving for 10 years and never had any experience like this...

I hope what I've put makes sense, I've looked online but it's rather confusing some say it's the MAF or the throttle position sensor??? Anyone have any ideas????

It drives fine normally however I did get a new battery replaced one month ago, going to sound thick but that won't have anything to do with it will it???

Thanks in advance, for any suggestions....

 

[greasedmonkey]

Sounds like the idle control valve to me. It's about the right mileage for it to give up. Also check for air leaks around the intake and vacuum hoses and give the throttle body a clean.

Don't have much knowledge on the citroens but some cars will need to re-learn the idle if the battery has been off for a while. Disconnect the battery for at least an hour, then reconnect, start her up and just leave her idling until the cooling fan comes on. As I say, I don't know if this is the case for Citroen, but I know it is for ford, Nissan, VW/Audi and others.