Please HELP!!!! 86 Corolla will not idle smoothly!!!!!!

[St/\\\nfeld]

PLease help guys, my 86 corolla with 5 speed will not idle.
here's what I've tried/checked/replaced
-no vacuum leaks
-all fuses and electric components working
-no fuel leaks
-fuel filter was replaced last year
-air filter is clean
-carb was cleaned out with throttle body cleaner
-linkages were lubricated with wd40
for some reason, the car has been progressively getting worse over the past couple of weeks. Recently it dies (ro really tries hard to keep running) after it has warmed up. funny thing is, is that after I had sprayed throttly body-carb cleaner in the carb, it would run smooth after I started the engine. I was thinkin that the fuel pump might have been bad, but it would not progressively get bad, nor would it get bettern once I pressed on the pedal (revved it up). Please help guys!@!! this car has been really great to me, and I'd hate to take it to a mechanic and let him rip me off!!
thanks in advance!!!!
St/\\\nfeld

[St/\\\nfeld]

p.s. fuel filter was also replaced last year

[St/\\\nfeld]

p.p.s. when I checked the air filter, there was some stuff that looked like sand that was past the air filter (how it got there, i really don't know!!!!)

[EJ86]

I had the same problem.

Here's what u should check

-Do you have a blown headgasket?

-Did u do a compression test?

-Try a different TPS sensor it maybe bad?

-Throttle body good?

-Coolant full?

- A code scanner is good to have if you wanna look for problems in your car($30 @ autozone)

I went through all that and I ended up having to replace my headgasket, cuz it was blown:





I got my hear resurfaced:



I spent about $300 (parts/labor) and on top of that I was carless for a week and had to take a bus cuz that was my daily driver/project car.

[oreo]

I had da same problem with my AE86 a while back, i checked all da vac lines and they were all good.... the problem was that i found a piece of RTV sealer stuck in the coolant lines for the cold start valve,... so check u'r lines. it probably wouldn't hurt if u took out u'r throttle body and cleaned it.

[EMEX]

Did you replace your oil filter after last time you changed your oil. It made a difference on my car.
My friend also had idle problem, but with a 850 turbo. After he cleaned the throttle body it ran perfectly fine, and his idle wasn't as bad as before, actually it was like new. So yeah, try that, I think it should defenetly help you.

[foompla]

sparkplugs?

[REN69]

I had the same problem with mine, my rpms would go up and down up and down from 1200 to 1500, it was really annoying. Also sometimes my rpms would stay up high and never come down. I found out it could be many things.. One of them could be your temperature sensor and even the thermostat. (these two tell the computer to either crank up the rpms or not depending on whether the motor is hot or cold.) I replaced my thermostat and cleaned the throttle body too.

A quick solution that worked for me was turning up the idling screw and then down all the way again, this seemed to fix the problem.

[Dicipleofthelie]

sounds a bit like what happened to me today...car would idle..but once i attempted to rev it up....it fell flat on its face and enarly died every time.....it started at about 12 this afternoon...and yeah...its bad....the bastard wont do anything unless i pump the gas furiously and drop the clutch...then it revs high and peels out...other than that theres nothing....if you figure out your problem i might be interested in your solution