Erratic Idle, stalling 306 1.9 TD

[davbolmac]

Hi,

I have a 97 306 1.9 DT, i recently bought it for cheap as my other car died a horrible death and left me stranded on a deserted motorway at half 5 in the morning.
Anyway, when i first bought the car i had to rev it when starting, the idle was a little low but other than that normalish, test drive was grand. Since then i find that when the car gets warmed up the idle runs lower, if i drop from lets say 2000rpm to neutral the engine sometimes drops below 800rpm and dies, other times the needle drops below 800rpm, rises up again and bounces between 800 and 1000rpm, sounds like the car is reving itself.
Today the engine died and when i tried to start it again it took a while for the engine to kick in. I also noticed that when driving lets say 30-40mph in 4th or 5th gear, it can sometimes feel like suddenly the handbrake has been slightly applied (lose of power maybe?), it doesnt move off on the clutch so low torque as well and i should also mention to contradict this that when you put your foot down it takes off, no lack of power when pushed...
At one point i increased the idle speed to compensate for this, worked ok for a few weeks, now its back to the same problems as mentioned above.
Notes about the cars condition, i has no air filter, the exhaust is kinda hanging in the middle of the car and the back box has a whole. As for services, after i bought it, i soon realised that with the rusty old oil filter and the fuel filter full of crap and pure black, i dont think it was serviced until i bought it. It has 117k on the clock and in otherwise decent nick.
I know this could be the injectors, i also thought with it being harder to start up now it could be the heating plugs going as well.
From reading all ive said here, can anyone tell me that there could be anything else wrong here?
Going to see a mechanic tomorrow anyway so ill keep you posted, just wondered has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks for reading, and better yet, thanks for responding.

Dav