bizarre idle problem, clueless lx-i owner...

[bats]

Hi, I've been reading these forums and you guys rock! I got my '89 lx-i and these faq's/how-to's/etc., helped me with a lot of small things that I was getting a huge headache over...Great to know there's a community dedicated towards are not-so-popular generation hondas. but anyway I'm digressing off my question.

List of problems:
1) Occasionally car will not turn, in the cold. Have to turn it twice or thrice
2) Idle goes from good to worse when using: headlights, applying brakes, fan, A/C. The tach looks like it's struggling when these items or combo of items are on.
3) If I pump my brakes, my idle will rise, 0-250 rpms, then steadily die back down. For the opposite, if I just slam on my brakes, my idle goes down 0-250rpms.
4) When the car is warming up, from a cold start, the exhaust pumps out a lot of unburned gas (too rich?), usually while the idle is in cold start mode from 2000rpms down to normal idle.
5) Forgot to mention that also whenever I apply my brakes, in any instance, all my dash lights dim.

Some side notes:
-A mechanic set the idle to 1200 while he performed a tune-up (no idea why, and I'm having a problem setting it back to where it was previously [750], even using the haynes manual).
-My check engine light has never gone on.
-I have installed an ebay special cold air intake
-I drive hard on my car about 4-5 times a week
-It is a 1989 LX-i, with 139k miles on it, and I'm the 3rd owner of the car.
-alternator was checked out, fresh battery put in Februrary

I figured it was vacuum related, but not to sure, any responses will be appreciated, excluding "search the forums" which I have been using very much so. :thumbdn: :thumbdn:

worthy of mentioning too: My engine misfires, pretty much throughout the range, probably a lot less in high rpms. I have compression tested it, and they were all within 10-15% of eachother (avg: 170??).

[shepherd79]

well, the dimming lights definatly electrical. so recheck the alternator and make sure you have good grounds between engine and the body, and battery and body. Grounds is some what big issue with this older cars.

Your idle. well, if your alternator is no good, that may cause the spark to be weak. another thing you may want to clean your throttle body. Download honda shop, there is a sticky about it in main technical section of this board.
Adjusting adle is easy. your idle screw is right above the air intake pipe. it is a brass screw, but it has o-ring on the inside. make sure you don't break it. if you break, you will be able to hear some sucking noise.
Also, check your ECU just to make sure you are not getting any codes. sometimes EFI light doens't come on all the time when you get codes.
that is all i have for you now.
see if that will help, if not we will work on it more with one baby steps at a time.

[bats]

well, the dimming lights definatly electrical. so recheck the alternator and make sure you have good grounds between engine and the body, and battery and body. Grounds is some what big issue with this older cars.

Your idle. well, if your alternator is no good, that may cause the spark to be weak. another thing you may want to clean your throttle body. Download honda shop, there is a sticky about it in main technical section of this board.
Adjusting adle is easy. your idle screw is right above the air intake pipe. it is a brass screw, but it has o-ring on the inside. make sure you don't break it. if you break, you will be able to hear some sucking noise.
Also, check your ECU just to make sure you are not getting any codes. sometimes EFI light doens't come on all the time when you get codes.
that is all i have for you now.
see if that will help, if not we will work on it more with one baby steps at a time.

hmm idle screw seems to be somewhat stripped :uh:
for the ecu, I turned the car, while my brother looked at the light. Immediately as I did so, he said it blinked once. This is normal right? normal being it always blinks once when starts up? I guess you could say Im not too concerned with the electrical problems with the car, as much as the idle problem, unless of course they are related :sad2: thanks for the response

[shepherd79]

you supposed to turn the key and leave it on. if you see light blinking 1 time pause bling another 1 time and another pause. that means that you have oxygen sensor problem. if the light stays on all the time, you have ECU problem.

about idle screw, if you can't unscrew it, just get another Throtle body.

[bats]

hmm...No problem with the ecu, doesn't give me any type of error...I just duno what else could be going wrong in this picture

[l3aLLa]

Well when I first got my LX-I, it would only rise and fall in RPMS if you keep pressing the brake on and off which is normal. But of course this was the 2nd day I had to car, the next day I went ahead and changed oil, fuel filter, and a tune-up (plugs, cap, rodar, wires). I also decided to go ahead and replace the timing belt because there is a ** by the timing belt indicating that its a dangerous item if broke because it will immediately start bending valves. 3 days later I went ahead and also let my car sit and adjusted the valves as your suppose to every 30K miles and I had 28,488. Within a week, my car was running top notch. When its cold in the morning, it hits 2k and within 5 minutes its where it should be with is a tad below 1000 rpms around 8ish.