Idle valve freezing

[gsp1337]

Hi all,

I'm having a very weird issue with my idle valve. The car is a 4.2L 1997 A8. When the temperatures dip below -18 degrees celsius, my idle valve gets gummed up and frozen. This only ever happens in the extreme cold.

This is what the value side and engine side look like:





The valve was frozen stuck to the point where I couldn't even move it with a plastic pick. I had to scrape whatever was on it off and spray it down with some throttle body cleaner to free it up.

Has anyone come across this issue or know what that stuff is? It smells like oil to me but I'm not sure why it's freezing up like that.

Any help is greatly appreciated.