Don't know if this helps - but here goes:
I am the proud owner of a 1998 v70r awd auto with 144k on the clock, bought 15 years ago from a good friend who had it since new. It had a full service history until 2007, and has been self maintained since then.
However, I had a bad Monday this week - I was just going to visit a friend (a retired garage owner/farmer) when about 100 yards from his drive, the engine died. Honest officer I was only doing 29 mph. It becomes very interesting with no power steering and no brake servo assist. However, since I carry over a ton of tools in the back, momentum allowed me to make it halfway up his drive.
The engine would turn over, but wouldn't run for more than a couple of seconds. so I got out, opened the bonnet - checked all the fuses and inspected carefully everything in sight. The only thing I could see was that the throttle cable was a bit floppy. My friend was not at home - out baling silage don't you know.
Smoked a small ciger, had a drink of coffee and returned to my car which decided to start. So I took it round to his workshop, next to his house,got out his Wurth WoW OBD2 bluetooth diagnostics dongle, cranked up his ancient PC and ran a test.
Yes I know my alarm siren doesn't function - the batteries died about 10 years ago - but the indicators still blink when the alarm goes off, Yes I know that my cabin temperature sensor probably needs a clean I did replace it about 7 years ago. Only thing odd that came up was a fault was a road speed sensor, wherever that is - but the speedometer was still working, and having replaced the abs unit about 3 years ago - actually it was the original refurbished. And all the wheel speed sensor were working.
Having thus found nothing out of the ordinary (as described above). I set to reading the tips included in the Wurth package, and lo and behold, it suggested that the throttle could be dirty. Well, since my friend still wasn't home 4 hours later, I took my life in my hands a drove (very gently) the four miles home. It was uneventful, except that just before parking, I braked for some pedestrians and my beloved stalled again. However, it started right away, and I parked for the night.
Tuesday was rainy - so no baling for my friend. So I went back to his workshop, told him of my woes and showed him the 'tip' that I had found.
Nosed the car into his workshop, and he stripped the throttle body, which was disgustingly cruddy. We tried brake cleaner, the jizer, and then regular paint thinners (which did the trick). Put it all back together and, touch wood, it has been running fine for the last 20 miles.
There is only one downside, from my perspective, of cleaning ones throttle - the engine revs drop to tick over, about 950 rpm, in my case immediately the accelerator is released so I am presently over braking (new front discs and pads required by my MOT in April this year.
The only other indication that something might have been wrong with my car, was that a couple of weeks ago I had a distinct misfire whilst braking for a reasonably, or should I say unreasonably, slow Jaguar XKR. I thought it was bad fuel as I had just filled up with Tesco's high octane.
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