I finally had some time to have a crack at cleaning out my ETM and I have to say it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. All I did was to remove the pipe at the intercooler end and lift it to make a bit of room and take out the radiator fan and cowling. It was fairly easy to drop the air pipe off the bottom of the ETM and get at the bolts and cable. It can't have taken more than 45 minutes and I was going carefully.
I used some throttle body cleaner and my girlfriends toothbrush (I'll buy her a new one) and 20 minutes later it was gleaming in there.
Getting the new ETM gasket and bolts back in made me swear a bit but after that it was easy.
My idle is now nice and steady and low end acceleration is much better. It might still be idling a little on the low side and 680rpm but it doesn't try to cut out at junctions any more.
If you think you have ETM issues and feel a bit daunted about tackling it yourself I'd say get stuck in and have a go, it wasn't anywhere near as difficult as you might think and the improvement is well worth it.
I did manage to break the handle off my dipstick though so that's another £1 to the scrap yard man for another one.
