Is it normal to sit at 1000 revs at start up?

[tobes49]

The Aux air pump works with the engine ECU start up to provide an over rich mixture and late ignition timing,

This means the mixture is still burning as it leaves the engine, mix in some fresh air from the air pump and this gives a controlled burn in the exhaust which heats the cats up very fast.

This is why they sound tinny and use lots of fuel on start up.

Unless you have the over rich mixture and mapped out of the ecu, There no point in removing the air pump as this will kill the cats faster by dumping unburnt fuel into the cats