Rover 214 SI - Strange Fuel Supply Problem

[spacecowboy]

Hi all,

This is my first post - hope someone has some ideas about this - it's driving me mad.

I have a 214 si K plate with pretty high mileage, the car itself is pretty sound, drives nice but the engine sounds a quite noisy top end - i.e. tappets, but thats not the main problem.

It will tick over fine - races and dies down a bit - 700- 1500 rpm.
You are driving along quite happily and then suddenly it starts to choke up and then the revs die completely - no response from the accelerator whatsoever. Exactly the same as if there is no fuel in the tank, as soon as you stop (or clutch) the engine dies, leave it for a few seconds, start it up, it revs normally, pull off and a few metres later the same thing.

The strange thing is its an intermitant (??spelling LOL) problem sometimes it behaves fine - ticks over at a steady 900rpm, drives fine, sounds fine then out of nowhere the problem comes back. When it has been standing for a while it runs fine for longer than it does when the engine is warm.

Almost everything is electronic so tracing the problem is a real pain.
At the moment we suspect the Engine Management Computer or the fuel pump but no solid ideas really.
Not sure if the termostat is working properly, could the choke be stuck on ??? and would that effect it in this way ?
I'm not a mechanic or anything so i'm a bit lost.

It's not worth a great deal (£200-£300 because of the high mileage and the pain job and of course this problem) so taking it to a rover dealer is just not worth it. any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks alot

[teky]

idle control valve is the first possible the the o2 sensor followed by the catalist