Engine Idles real low as per usual

[raygv]

Ok so I know you guys have gone over this a thousand times. and I think thats whats adding to my confusion. Reading the forums, my mechanic, and my dad are all confusing the hell out of me. Ok let me start. I've got a 87 lxi hatch 5spd. I got it in februrary and I've done nothing but spend money trying to get it to act right. so far i've done

plugs & wires
fuel filter
air filter
hatch struts
new headlights
new clutch & clutch cable (one month later)
timing belt & water pump
radiator hose
New radiator fan motor
replaced missing bolts on exhaust manifold (how the hell does the previous owner forget to put them back on?)
thermosensor (In not sure thats what it is called I thought the thermosensor was on the bottom of the radiator, but thats what the mechanic said it was and they had to order it from honda and it was expensive)
thermostat (there wasnt one in my car to begin with WTF?)
new thermostat housing.

OK I'm still having problems. I got the car back today after having the fan motor, thermosensor, thermostat & housing, and manifold bolts replaced to the tune of 1100 dollars. About 10 second after I turn the car on when the engine is already warmed up the car will idle really slow. almost to the point of stalling. it goes to the lowest notch right above zero on the tach, the car will sputter and shake a bit. and after 10-15 seconds or so it'll return to the second notch after zero. and it seems ok. Sometimes the car will idle slow like this for longer periods sometimes a few minutes when I put it in neutral like at a redlight. after a while it clears up. I took it back to the mechanic not having it back for more than an hour. and he said it was a separate issue and it would cost me another service charge. he said it might be something with the fuel injection but he wouldnt be sure until he looked at it (he means "give me 150 dollars before I tell you its something simple") does anyone know what I should look at first? and if it isnt too much to ask. can I see pictures of what you guys are talking about. I'm not good with cars.
Also, this is more a minor annoyance turned into something that eating at me slowly until I end up going crazy. But the digi dash clock didnt work when I got it. well it did sorta. if I press on the plastic cover that covered the 3 buttons it will light up it never told the right time. otherwise it was always very dim almost impossible to see. well I hunted around and I found it was a fuse that was bad. so I replaced it. a month later it burned again. I replaced it another month or so go by and yesterday when i got the car back it was burned out again. THIS time everytime I try to replace the fuse there is a blue spark and the fuse blows. I tried a bunch of times too (probably not a very good thing to do) does anyone know where I should start first? is it a bad clock? is it in the wiring? I dont know.

[raygv]

I did a little more reading and its not a thermosensor that my mechanic replaced its a thermovalve. it was broken leaving a hose with the number 12 unattached. in one of my repair notes they said that becasue this was broken they couldn't set the vac advance ( I guess this has something to do with the timing too?) well today I redisconnected hose 12 and it still would idle real low when I started the car when it was already warm. so I started to mess around with things and I think I disconnected the hose from the black cylinder thing that I think goes to the cruise control (which has never worked) and it started and idled much better. it idles a bit high but much more closer to normal. when I reconnected it. it began to idle low again. Any thoughts? Also, before I was averaging 30mpg on the highway and yesterday I got only 23 highway. whats up with that?

[lostforawhile]

your engine idles higher because you are causing a vaccume leak when you disconnect the hose.

[lostforawhile]

I did a little more reading and its not a thermosensor that my mechanic replaced its a thermovalve. it was broken leaving a hose with the number 12 unattached. in one of my repair notes they said that becasue this was broken they couldn't set the vac advance ( I guess this has something to do with the timing too?) well today I redisconnected hose 12 and it still would idle real low when I started the car when it was already warm. so I started to mess around with things and I think I disconnected the hose from the black cylinder thing that I think goes to the cruise control (which has never worked) and it started and idled much better. it idles a bit high but much more closer to normal. when I reconnected it. it began to idle low again. Any thoughts? Also, before I was averaging 30mpg on the highway and yesterday I got only 23 highway. whats up with that?
that thermovalve is connected to several items including you vaccume advance it changes the vaccume signal when the car is warmed up

[lostforawhile]

Ok so I know you guys have gone over this a thousand times. and I think thats whats adding to my confusion. Reading the forums, my mechanic, and my dad are all confusing the hell out of me. Ok let me start. I've got a 87 lxi hatch 5spd. I got it in februrary and I've done nothing but spend money trying to get it to act right. so far i've done

plugs & wires
fuel filter
air filter
hatch struts
new headlights
new clutch & clutch cable (one month later)
timing belt & water pump
radiator hose
New radiator fan motor
replaced missing bolts on exhaust manifold (how the hell does the previous owner forget to put them back on?)
thermosensor (In not sure thats what it is called I thought the thermosensor was on the bottom of the radiator, but thats what the mechanic said it was and they had to order it from honda and it was expensive)
thermostat (there wasnt one in my car to begin with WTF?)
new thermostat housing.

OK I'm still having problems. I got the car back today after having the fan motor, thermosensor, thermostat & housing, and manifold bolts replaced to the tune of 1100 dollars. About 10 second after I turn the car on when the engine is already warmed up the car will idle really slow. almost to the point of stalling. it goes to the lowest notch right above zero on the tach, the car will sputter and shake a bit. and after 10-15 seconds or so it'll return to the second notch after zero. and it seems ok. Sometimes the car will idle slow like this for longer periods sometimes a few minutes when I put it in neutral like at a redlight. after a while it clears up. I took it back to the mechanic not having it back for more than an hour. and he said it was a separate issue and it would cost me another service charge. he said it might be something with the fuel injection but he wouldnt be sure until he looked at it (he means "give me 150 dollars before I tell you its something simple") does anyone know what I should look at first? and if it isnt too much to ask. can I see pictures of what you guys are talking about. I'm not good with cars.
Also, this is more a minor annoyance turned into something that eating at me slowly until I end up going crazy. But the digi dash clock didnt work when I got it. well it did sorta. if I press on the plastic cover that covered the 3 buttons it will light up it never told the right time. otherwise it was always very dim almost impossible to see. well I hunted around and I found it was a fuse that was bad. so I replaced it. a month later it burned again. I replaced it another month or so go by and yesterday when i got the car back it was burned out again. THIS time everytime I try to replace the fuse there is a blue spark and the fuse blows. I tried a bunch of times too (probably not a very good thing to do) does anyone know where I should start first? is it a bad clock? is it in the wiring? I dont know.
the clock is a piece of s$#@ i went through several of them http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b205/moultriemanicmechanic/Image00021.jpg no clock!! how can honda make such a good car with such a crappy clock? if you try to remove it from the dash a lot of times it will break apart. my last one broke apart with a sledgehammer hehe. oh the eighties. here's my new one out of a z got a stopwatch too! next to the altimeter. http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b205/moultriemanicmechanic/Image00022.jpg find something else cool that will fit in there that'll fix er.

[lostforawhile]

i think you need to replace your mechanic,does he work for the local autoparts store? replace everything until it works. a real mechanic will try to find the real problem not throw money at it. i guarentee you told him you didn't know anything about cars didn't you? in the words of Alan jackson,"the mechanic raised up from under my hood,gave me his best sorrowful look and he said this ain't good, your timing belts dun shrunk one size too small, your water pumps nearly down a quart and your torgue converters running low on torgue, your injector ports are stripped but that ain't all got to hear the song sounds like your mechanic

[raygv]

I went to him because he was recommended from another website for my area. hondabeat.com the comment left said he was reasonable and did good work. they work on hondas/acuras & toyotas/lexus.
If I am creating a vaccum leak by disconnecting the hose on the black cylinder on the cruise control is that bad?
Don't laugh I'm really smart but not with cars.

[lostforawhile]

i'm not laughing if you don't ask questions you won't learn anything. yes a vaccume leak is bad, you might just need to adjust your idle slightly, when it drops down and comes back up thats the computer raising the idle. because it was low. these cars are very difficult to understand as far as the electronic controls are concerned. i know a lot of honda techs who get confused. your average mechnic who doesn't see these very often is not going to be able to figure it out. i've been working on these control systems for years,not by choice, but because no one else could figure it out. used to rebuild three barrel cvcc carbs and i still get a headache reading the vaccume diagram.

[lostforawhile]

i'm not laughing if you don't ask questions you won't learn anything. yes a vaccume leak is bad, you might just need to adjust your idle slightly, when it drops down and comes back up thats the computer raising the idle. because it was low. these cars are very difficult to understand as far as the electronic controls are concerned. i know a lot of honda techs who get confused. your average mechnic who doesn't see these very often is not going to be able to figure it out. i've been working on these control systems for years,not by choice, but because no one else could figure it out. used to rebuild three barrel cvcc carbs and i still get a headache reading the vaccume diagram.
i'm not putting down the mechanic but it just sounds like a lot of money for something like this.

[raygv]

ok I think I got it. I started to think about stuff. and I was thinking that maybe when the thermovalve was broken and idleing properly that means someone had adjusted it to do that. And the mechanic didnt take that into account and he didn't set the idle to compensate for there being no vac leak. so I tried to find the idle screw and eventually I found it and I monkey'd with it and now it seems to be fine. I dunno if thats the fix for it. but it seems ok now. I'm hoping I'm not masking a bigger problem.

[Oldblueaccord]

ok I think I got it. I started to think about stuff. and I was thinking that maybe when the thermovalve was broken and idleing properly that means someone had adjusted it to do that. And the mechanic didnt take that into account and he didn't set the idle to compensate for there being no vac leak. so I tried to find the idle screw and eventually I found it and I monkey'd with it and now it seems to be fine. I dunno if thats the fix for it. but it seems ok now. I'm hoping I'm not masking a bigger problem.

Its is very possible that the idle was high and someone adjusted it down to compensate. you did right by thinking like that.

There is a screw by the throttle body that adjust the idle slightly you can mess with that.

Another thing you can look for is if the computer is giving you a code by looking under the driver seat at the ECU (cars computer) has a small hatch. The red LED under there will blink if it has a code in it. If it has a code the computer will switch to a differant program until the code is fixed. This usually results in bad gas mileage and poor runabilty.

Lastly these cars are not well known for there idle quality in general.


wp

[nswst8]

Just a quick input,

I was having a similar problem but mine was caused when there was an electrical load ie: fan on high, a/c on, and depress the brakes that would engage the brake lights.

This would cause low idle, come to find out that the alternator was bad. "Alternator FR signal"

[lostforawhile]

at least your computer will compensate for things the carb computer will just run bad. i found out what was wrong with my idle, measured cam lobe height and found out this is not your grannies accord. must have been done when engine was worked on before. wapitywapitywapitywapitywaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. hehe http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b205/moultriemanicmechanic/pics_granny-gang.jpg at least not most grannies accord

[raygv]

All that time and money I put into my little car can be taken away so fast by an idiot who ran a stop sign and slammed into me and then tried to take off. He had no liscense and no insurance. ironic thing was it was a 4g accord that hit me. I dont know what to do. I had my car towed back home I spent so much money to just have it junked out. but I dont know how much it would take to have all the damage fixed. the hit impacted the front passenger wheel area. the NEW axle and NEW CV Joints that I just replaced a 6 weeks ago are done. the wheel is hanging on barely to I dont know what. the fender and bumper and door are all history. I'm wondering how hard it is to try to do at least some of this work myself. especially since I'm inexperienced on working on cars. does anyone know?

[88Accord-DX]

Just get a whole new axle, comes with CV joint. Sounds like you broke the upper or lower ball joint. Try looking at the junkyard for parts you need. You will need some jackstands for a start at the suspension work needed, along with a few tools.

[snoopyloopy]

do you have a way of posting pix of your damage?