The invention discloses a detection method for the idling of a wheel pair. The detection method comprises a step of calculating a per unit value, calculating the per unit value of a vehicle running parameter according to the wheel pair speed and the reference speed of a vehicle; a step of determining a joint detection value, calculating the joint detection value according to a preset model on the basis of the per unit value of the running parameter; and a step of judging the idling, comparing the joint detection value and a preset detection threshold value, and judging whether the vehicle generates the idling or not according to the compared result. According to the detection method and device disclosed by the invention, a multi-reference joint detection method is used for detecting whether the wheel pair of the vehicle generates the idling or not, i.e., the per unit values of a wheel pair speed difference, a wheel pair creeping speed and wheel pair acceleration are united according to a certain weight to judge whether the wheel pair generates the idling or not, so that the problem that the detection result is inaccurate due to a single detection variable used by existing conventional detection method for the idling of the wheel pair is effectively prevented, and the accuracy and the reliability for detecting the idling of the wheel pair are improved.