What's up everyone? 
During this past winter I was experiencing a rough surging idle in the morning, unless it was pretty warm out - furthermore after my engine heated up the problem wouldn't occur until the following day.
However, my car had recently been sitting for a while (I was in need of a replacement shift cable for my automatic transmission) and when I got her started back up the idle persisted through this summer weather and it was a bit worse:
At first the idle was only surging from 1,000 - 2,000 while in park, now it was beginning to jump from 1,000-2,500 in park as well as while driving at moderately slow speeds (1st and 2nd gear) and it would jerk every time that the idle would spike.
After digging around a little bit on the forums, YouTube, and Google I gathered enough information to assume that it was either a vacuum leak, a bad wire or of course just an entirely bad assembly. So, I recently did a little bit of exploring in the engine bay in an attempt to find the culprit that has been causing the infamous "Honda Idle" to my 93' EX.
First, I went ahead and checked on my transmission fluid just to make sure that it was topped off and that the jerking/lugging was definitely cause of the idle surge and sure enough I needed some fluid. After correcting that, it was a bit softer however I could definitely still feel the spike every time, and it would sometimes begin to occur while stopped at a light.
I ended up going to a junkyard and hoping for the luck of finding one that was in working condition (since apparently this problem is so common for our cars), unfortunately after I switched parts - there was no change. Anyways, I proceeded to clean my throttle body and sort of eliminate each possible source and ultimately after a day of working in the sun I noticed the weirdest thing in the world.
Here is a link to the thread I was reading which read about setting your base idle properly..
http://www.cb7tuner.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=146239
- I followed those steps and "bottomed out" the little plastic screw under the metallic lid that's around the little coil spring thing (I don't know what it's called but here's a picture - the thing with the blue sticker) >
Anyways what I found was that when I would apply just the softest hint of pressure to the center of the plate where the head of the spring sticks out a bit the idle would immediately go down to +/- 800, perfect!
My uncle suggested that I had lost a gasket or something, but I insisted that when I unscrewed and opened the little plate that I hadn't moved anything. What we ended up doing to sort of "rig" the fix was by far the funniest thing I have ever witnessed. We clipped the rubber grip from the tip of a glove and maintained the pressure in between with two pennies and just sealed the latch.
I wouldn't necessarily have to force down a bunch or anything, but I noticed that I would have to apply enough pressure and cover enough space to stop the flow of air. Ultimately, what I'm trying to figure out is if there is like a rubber gasket or anything that belongs on top of it?
If you guys would happen to know if I'm missing something, or if there could be something else that's causing this I'd totally appreciate some feedback. I've been contemplating really putting forth a bit of an investment into the Honda, but I can't imagine wanting to work with this car long-term if I can't even move past something as trivial as an annoying idle.
PS. Sorry for the huge picture, honestly I didn't think it was gonna' upload that big..
During this past winter I was experiencing a rough surging idle in the morning, unless it was pretty warm out - furthermore after my engine heated up the problem wouldn't occur until the following day.
However, my car had recently been sitting for a while (I was in need of a replacement shift cable for my automatic transmission) and when I got her started back up the idle persisted through this summer weather and it was a bit worse:
At first the idle was only surging from 1,000 - 2,000 while in park, now it was beginning to jump from 1,000-2,500 in park as well as while driving at moderately slow speeds (1st and 2nd gear) and it would jerk every time that the idle would spike.
After digging around a little bit on the forums, YouTube, and Google I gathered enough information to assume that it was either a vacuum leak, a bad wire or of course just an entirely bad assembly. So, I recently did a little bit of exploring in the engine bay in an attempt to find the culprit that has been causing the infamous "Honda Idle" to my 93' EX.
First, I went ahead and checked on my transmission fluid just to make sure that it was topped off and that the jerking/lugging was definitely cause of the idle surge and sure enough I needed some fluid. After correcting that, it was a bit softer however I could definitely still feel the spike every time, and it would sometimes begin to occur while stopped at a light.
I ended up going to a junkyard and hoping for the luck of finding one that was in working condition (since apparently this problem is so common for our cars), unfortunately after I switched parts - there was no change. Anyways, I proceeded to clean my throttle body and sort of eliminate each possible source and ultimately after a day of working in the sun I noticed the weirdest thing in the world.
Here is a link to the thread I was reading which read about setting your base idle properly..
http://www.cb7tuner.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=146239
- I followed those steps and "bottomed out" the little plastic screw under the metallic lid that's around the little coil spring thing (I don't know what it's called but here's a picture - the thing with the blue sticker) >
Anyways what I found was that when I would apply just the softest hint of pressure to the center of the plate where the head of the spring sticks out a bit the idle would immediately go down to +/- 800, perfect!
My uncle suggested that I had lost a gasket or something, but I insisted that when I unscrewed and opened the little plate that I hadn't moved anything. What we ended up doing to sort of "rig" the fix was by far the funniest thing I have ever witnessed. We clipped the rubber grip from the tip of a glove and maintained the pressure in between with two pennies and just sealed the latch.
I wouldn't necessarily have to force down a bunch or anything, but I noticed that I would have to apply enough pressure and cover enough space to stop the flow of air. Ultimately, what I'm trying to figure out is if there is like a rubber gasket or anything that belongs on top of it?
If you guys would happen to know if I'm missing something, or if there could be something else that's causing this I'd totally appreciate some feedback. I've been contemplating really putting forth a bit of an investment into the Honda, but I can't imagine wanting to work with this car long-term if I can't even move past something as trivial as an annoying idle.
PS. Sorry for the huge picture, honestly I didn't think it was gonna' upload that big..
Comment