Just wanted to sing in ans say thanks for posting your troubles...saved me some $$$...I have 95' Discovery with 152K....standard...love the space....I have always loved the Jeep Cherokee but after some reading decided to give an older Disco a try...wanted a little more towing power and for $1990 the price was right...I have to say the shifting is a little clunky and clanky.....slightly temperamental....not sure if that's normal....but it works....clutch pedal gets stuck down every so often...but I've gotten so good at lifting up the pedal... I forget it does it.. ...need to replace the slave cylinder at some point I guess... Anyways ran into an issue a few months ago....on the way to the beach....just lost suddenly lost power and wouldn't stay running...after some roadside diag...it seemed like the Mass Air Flow Sensor wasn't working right...since we didn't have one in the trunk...we gave yanking of the connector try...(works on some VW's)...Walla!...it took a sec to readjust and we were able to make it back home....stinking of bad exhaust....and getting Hummer like MPG....after a little searching picked up a used MAF on ebay for $80...that did the trick...fast forward 5 months....problem resurfaces...sort of...not sure if it was coincidence but it was shortly after adding a 3.5 inch cone K&N filter....little more power.....but after a few days....now it runs rough....surging and then almost stalling or stalling. Idle is horrible...after some reading I go ahead and clean the MAF with cleaner...some posts mentioned the oil in the filter can dirty up the MAF in the beginning....no go....on a whim I yank of the MAF again and it runs ok....but way too rich as before...good short term fix but not long term...not sure what the issue was and not having the time or $$ to look into it....I ran it like that for a month or so....burning gas like an out of shape hummer...knowing I'm blowing up my cats and O2 sensors....and who know what else...I finally decided to try and diagnose the issue.....so after connecting the MAF again and letting it run surging ...almost stalling I disconnect the Idle Control valve....nothing....nothing??..I expected it to do something...no change...with MAF connected or not...so I suspected the ICV...I wasn't looking forward to replacing....so I did some searching and came across your post...and gave it a good cleaning...the stepper motor....contact cleaner....carb cleaner...lots of dirty oil/grease/soot came out.....put it back (oh yeah...had to go to the hardware store and pickup the 7/32 SAE allen key socket. cuz I don't have one....one complaint I have...Hex bolts? every where? starter too? ???? ) after a little running rough...but better...seems to have fixed the problem....now to resolve the shaking that has developed when running under load...up hills....that started with running the MAF disconnected after a month or so....not sure if it's dirty plugs...bad wires....distributor cap....or it I really gunked up my O2's or cats.....hope not too bad....

If you have any other thoughts...feel free to post....THX again for your posts!
-M