88 Camry-fast idle going up+down

I've got an 88 Camry with about 225,000 miles on it and have a strange problem. Seems like the fast idle sticks sometimes and I have to tap the gas a few times to get it to slow down and it's getting really annoying. Anyone have this before and fixed it? I know there's a lot of sensors under the hood, I don't know what all of them do, maybe you could point me in the right direction.

Idle Air Control valve? search the forum or look in a service manual for how to clean it.

It's very possible your throttle.

Take off the air filter cover and the intake air hose. You should be able to see the throttle flap. If you never cleaned it, you should see yummy, black, and disgusting gum there. What I did was to use carburator cleaner or brake cleaner with an old tooth brush to thoroughly clean it up.

After cleaning, you will have some difficulty starting the engine since all the dirty stuff is flush down to the cylinder. After that, it should be fine.

To do as ProMan suggests, you can park it on the side of a hill or jack it up with the driver's side of the car down so that the yuck drains out out of the throttle body as you clean it.

"What I did was to use carburator cleaner or brake cleaner with an old tooth brush to thoroughly clean it up."

ProMan,

Have you actually used brake cleaner for this job without any adverse effects on the O2 sensors? I could see using brake cleaner if you were cleaning the throttle body off the car, and could dry everything before reinstalling it back on the car. I would be concerned about using brake cleaner to clean it on the car. I wouldn't want any brake cleaner going through the engine.

Mike