Crazy Idle

[DanG86LX]

I need help with my idle speed problem. Once in a while (weekly nowadays) my idle speed is not there. Start the car in the morning, it goes to fast idle ok, but after the engine warms up, and fast idle cam is released, the engine stalls. Sometimes it goes to like 300 rpms for a while before it stalls. I can start it again only by opening the throttle (even when warm) and I can drive it with my foot on throttle all the time (braking with left foot !). Warm or cold it stalls. After a while (one hour or next day) everything goes back to normal, great idle ~750 rpms..
Changed the air and fuel filters, spark plugs, distributor cup and rotor, checked PCV, disabled EGR and suction crap, checked all vacuum lines, cleaned the carb with spray, and I am pretty sure there is nothing in the black box or ECU that might do this. I got a feeling that might be electrical, coil, wires or igniter but those may affect the high revs too which is not the case.
Any help would be much appreciated..:rolleyes:
Thanks

[ACCORD EX]

wires did a lot of idling problems to me ! the idle was always usntable for me ! but now solved !

any way , get a carb cleaner and check this how to on the carb !


http://members.fortunecity.com/accordex87/carb.htm

MIKE

[DanG86LX]

Hey, I thought I should update this old thread since I'm trouble free for the past two weeks now. The problem was indeed ELECTRICAL (I would say most of the time intermittent problems come from electronics). I replaced the original COIL , WIRES and IGNITER for ~$300 ($200US). But those $$$ are well spent compare with another $300 left at H-service for cleaning carburator (with spray you know..) which did not do a damn thing. :burn:
Neither of them (coil , wires, igniter) failed at the recommended tests. At first I thought I may replace only the coil and wire cause they were chipper. But when I tested the old igniter I had a dilemma...and I'll explain why:
My igniter is external to distributor and has 4 isolated terminals. The test say strap two terminals (where the pickup coil is connected) and measure continuity on the other two. At one polarity should show infinite resistance, the opposite polarity (with DVM on R x 100) should show continuity. At this last test my old igniter showed 4..5 MOhms which I thought shouldn't be right. I took it to the dealer but they couldn't tell me if the igniter was bad either. Then I decided to buy a sealed new igniter ($200 ouch!). Needless to say the new igniter showed identical readings as the old one... That does not mean that the old one is good, it may still have an intermittent problem.
At this point I have no desire for further investigations, I'm happy when my car is happy. ;)
Sorry for such a long update.

DanG

[Dutchboy]

If the igniter was faulty would it also make the idle jump or miss at idle?????

Ive changed all the ignition parts....coil., plugs., cap,.rotor.,plugs and i still have a miss at idle and while driving i can feel it miss also at certain speeds.

And the other week i was downtown and my car ran like shit so i turned the idle up more and it seems to be normal for the most part.

[DanG86LX]

At idle you can monitor a miss easily with a timing light set successively on each cylinder. If you get a miss randomly an all cylinders the problem might be upstream => coil - igniter - pickup coil - reluctor. Miss on a certain cylinder => wire - spark plug - reluctor gap. No miss means mechanical problems like valves, piston rings, compression... :rant:

DanG