Post up a picture, your description of the broken part is rather vague sounding, also if it is a broken part it should be repaired/replaced and not disabled.
My 98' Sidekick as well as every other modern I4 engine I have owned and/or worked on, has a rather high idle when the coolant is below 140 degrees or so. The higher idle is far easier on engine wear than a low idle when the engine is in a no load condition. Though different platforms will have a slightly different cold start high idle, it is always in the 2K range, give or take a few hundred rpm's. This is part of the reason for the 5w oil requirement.