Whenever we happen to meet in the street, the conversation turns to cars very quickly. This was again the case a few days ago when he told me wistfully that he had sold his car and that they now relied on his wife's little three-cylinder runabout to take them where they had to go. I was surprised to hear this. Peter had a 2007 Toyota Corolla 1.6 A/T, which was his pride and joy. It must have been a hard decision to part with it.
Bereft of money and knowledgeable friends, Peter turned to the internet, the great saviour of inexperienced DIYers in modern times. Prof Google revealed that excessively high idling speed at start-up on a petrol engine can be caused by a dirty throttle body. Following the beautifully clear instructions in the videos, Peter removed all the attachments on the throttle body, with copious use of stickers to record what goes where on reassembly. He could then take the throttle body out of the engine compartment. Using carb cleaner from a spray can, together with rags and ear buds or pipe cleaners, he cleaned the butterfly valve and the surrounding air horn thoroughly of carbon and lacquer deposits.