Things I have already fixed in my Accord

[Buzo]

When I first bought this car I had to use both feet, one in the brake and one in the gas pedal. The seller told me the car had been unused for looong time (never aslked how long) and that it has a blown head gasket (have never seen white smog in the muffler!!).

1.-Cooling Fan innoperant. In my way home, using both feet, the temp was getting too hot, stopped aside the road and noticed the fan will not come on, put a direct wire from the battery to the cooling fan. Got home and take out the termo-switch below the radiator and check for continuity, It was open even when I put it in boiling water. I dissasembled it, cleaned the contact inside and reassembled it back. (it costs $70 US dlls new!) I fixed also some blown fuses related to this fan.

2.-Intake air temperature actuator. Vacuum leak due to damaged diaphragm. Went to the jy and couldn't find a replacement. Bought a similar vacuum actuator and adapted it using mating parts from the original one.

3.-Carb's air vent cut-off diaphragm. Vacuum leak due to damaged diaghrapm. Replaced the diaphragm. The thermovalve below is always open. Need to replace it later.

4.-Fuel flooding. After the daily trip from my workplace back home, I noticed a small fuel odor. Checked the fuel level in the carb window and found it above the recommended level. Left the key on while the engine was off and saw the fuel flooding. Bought the carburetor kit and changed the needle, seat and orings and adjusted the level to the middle of the window.

5.-Frequency solenoid valve C. Found a leak in the hose. Cut the hose in two pieces and joined them back with a piece of plastic.

6.- Working in fixing the Idle Boost Throttle Controller action. It is supposed to have vacuum when in Park or Neutral, and no vacuum when in any other shift. This one has vacuum all the time. Solenoide valve inside the control box is OK, however its always receiving voltage. So the problem must be in the wiring harness someplace from the shift console to the control box.

So the problem I have right now is that the car works OK in idle (1000 RPMs), but when I put any shift the car stumbles (~700 RPMs), but after a few minutes of driving the RPMs get higher, 1200 in Idle and 1000 in any shift. I don't like this, I would like to be always at 1000 or whatever RPMs but they increase and increase as I drive the car.

[ShyBoyCA6]

um 5spd or auto?

[Buzo]

6.- Working in fixing the Idle Boost Throttle Controller action. It is supposed to have vacuum when in Park or Neutral, and no vacuum when in any other shift. This one has vacuum all the time. Solenoide valve inside the control box is OK, however its always receiving voltage. So the problem must be in the wiring harness someplace from the shift console to the control box.


Any advise in this one will be greatly appreciated.

[Buzo]

Automatic.
By the way, Should I refer to my car as He, She or It?
In Mexico, a car is an "it" but I have seen people here referring to it as "she"

[Buzo]

I have a plan for tomorrow, page 11-87 of the manual. ECU Output/Input summary.

As I said, there is always 12 Volts in the idle boost solenoid valve, regardless the shift position.

So the emission control unit is located below the driver's seat, I just need to check the inputs for the P and N shift positions and the output to the solenoid. This is an OR condition with the inputs P or N.

Hope this solenoid is directly activaded by the shift position and not something else like coolant temp. We'll see.

[charliekuney]

"El carro" esta bien.

:P

People in English-speaking countries usually refer to machinery as females, as well as name them female names.

[Dr_Snooz]

Sounds like you have yourself a project there! Good times. The Electrical Troubleshooting Manual (available here (http://3geez.wiki-tv.com/Honda_service_manuals)) should help enormously. If the car sat for a long time, there is probably a lot of nastiness in the carburetor and fuel lines. It will probably run very poorly until that all gets worked out. You might end up having to rebuild the carb at some point, but make that a last resort.

Use whatever pronoun you feel comfortable using when addressing your car. My Accord is an "it", but my truck, "Chester", is a "he." :D

[Xaisk]

Sounds like some good carb work. Im curious as to something similiar. Im running a weber and when it is in park it idles at 1250, when I put it in drive it drops to about 750/800ish. Why does it do that? is that natural for the engine? Its actually kind of aggravating.

I consider my 3g a "he" and its name is Calnus, but I dont say it in front of people haha.

[2drSE-i]

"El carro" esta bien.

:P

People in English-speaking countries usually refer to machinery as females, as well as name them female names.

Jajaja! El coche automatico esta muy bien! Charlie es un pinche gringo!

All kidding aside (lol) cars are "its" technically, but many people (especially gear heads such as ourselves) refer to them as females

[Buzo]

Thanks for your pronouns explanation. I am going to keep calling it "it"

Item#6 Idle boost throttle solenoid valve always ON in my list has been fixed.

Both inputs P and N were being received OK at the ECU input connector, but the output was always 12 V regardless the shift position.

The input to the Micro controller inside the ECU changed accordingly from +5Volts when in N or P and 0V in any other shift, but the output at the microcontroller pin was always +5V. It means a faulty Micro.

I did a quick fix. Made a short between the input and the output (I have some pictures to explain what I did) but I isolated the output of the IC before to avoid to shorten in to ground.

Now my solenoid valve is ON in N or P and OFF in any other shift.

7.-Tachometer intermitent. Today I fixed an issue that I was having with the tacho. It had an intermittent failure, sometimes it was at 0 RPM with the engine ON and sometimes it was OK. Once driving in the street, it was almost always OFF.

So what I did is that I put an external 2.2 kOhms resistors between terminals B and D (Page 24-12 of the service manual) of the coil.

Took my car for a ride today and the Tacho stayed OK!!!

If I decide to stay with this car which is very probably, I am going to change the ECU, since other outputs may be damaged as well, and the coil.

8.-The next thing to fix is the accelerator mechanism. When I started my ride this morning the motor was at 900 RPMS, when I get back home it was 1200 in Idle. I tapped in the back of the accelerator pedal and the car got back to ~1000 RPMs, so I assume the problem may be lack of lubricant.

[Buzo]

7.-Tachometer intermitent. Today I fixed an issue that I was having with the tacho. It had an intermittent failure, sometimes it was at 0 RPM with the engine ON and sometimes it was OK. Once driving in the street, it was almost always OFF.

So what I did is that I put an external 2.2 kOhms resistors between terminals B and D (Page 24-12 of the service manual) of the coil.


Trying to upload a picture of my tacho fix.

The best solution would be to buy a new coil, but I don't want to put big money in this car yet...If the fix worked for me I am going to leave it as is for some time.

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/5514/tachofix.png

[Dr_Snooz]

How is it that you are having so many electrical problems?

[Dr_Snooz]

I'm impressed with the work you're doing. You have overcome some pretty significant issues. Please stick around and share your knowledge with others.

[Buzo]

I learned a lot from this site. So thank you guys for building & keeping it up to date.

Today it was snowing here and went out to take a short video of my car's cold start. Everything went OK, except for the freaking alternator belt noise due to the high humidity in the ambient. So Hope it gets colder after I re-adjust the belt, to repeat the video. It fires up in cold just like if it was Fuel Injection!

And regarding my to-do list, I am still not satisfied with the Idle Boost Performance, so I went to the JY and bought a replacement actuator that I plan to install tomorrow, if the weather allows it. With this I will kill my last problem which is not keeping the same RPMs in the engine with and without load.

[Oldblueaccord]

Good trouble shooting on your car. Alot of people would not have gone and taken the time to look thru everything. Good work!

Since your have an automatic trans do you think the idle is being effected by the torque converter not slipping at idle until its warmed up?


wp

[Buzo]

Good trouble shooting on your car. Alot of people would not have gone and taken the time to look thru everything. Good work!

Since your have an automatic trans do you think the idle is being effected by the torque converter not slipping at idle until its warmed up?


wp

Thanks, I am on vacation from work, so time was available to work in my car.

I just fixed my #9 problem which was exactly what you mention here, Lost of aprox 300 RPMS when changing from Parking to any shift.

The problem was with the Idle Boost Throttle controller a) the solenoid always ON because the ECU unit below the driver's seat won't shut the solenoid valve when it is in P or N. So I fixed the ECU to get No-Vacuum in P or N and Vaqcuum in any other shift. Then adjusted the Idle boost throttle controller screw.

I bet your Idle boost throttle controller is misadjusted.

I am going to post some pictures of how the car works now. You can see how the Idle speed keeps up:


Idle speed at Parking right above 1000 RPMs

Idle speed at reverse just below 1000 RPMs

Idle speed at D4 just below 1000 RPMs:

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/8687/idleboostcontrollerfix.jpg (http://img692.imageshack.us/i/idleboostcontrollerfix.jpg/)


Not bad, uh?

[Buzo]

Could somebody tell me how to include the actual picture in the thread, and not only the link? This imageshack thing is new for me.

Issue #10. Can not get down to 750 RPMS at Idle. The car started to stumble below 900 RPMs.

I found the lock of the accelerator pump in the carb missing, so the spring maintaned the accelerator pump half way in. Replaced the lock and now it runs even better at idle.

[ShyBoyCA6]

i would let the car warm up first to see if it drops rpm to 750.

if it's still at 1000rpm then you could have a Vac. leak some where.

[Buzo]

I think I found how to upload the images, but if still i am doing something wrong please let me know.

This one is for the latest problem solved in my car. That lock was missing since the day I bought the car, I dissasembled the cover of the carb to change the needle and seat, but just assumed it was OK without lock. It was until I bought this JY carburetor that I realized the missing lock.

I want it to be tomorrow to do some hard acceleration tests. I think I was loosing one half of the power all this time!!

http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/8096/accpump.jpg (http://img810.imageshack.us/i/accpump.jpg/)

[cartmania]

Nice thread!

I am struggling wiht low idle while in gear. It runs fine anytime, except when stopped at light, etc. Shifting to N always solves the issue. It is causing some rather large vibration, and a big headache for me. Can you post the pictures of your "fix" for this issue (#7)

Thanks!

[Dr_Snooz]

LOL. The fix was to swap to a different carburetor.

http://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=75059&highlight=holley+5212

[Buzo]

Nice thread!

I am struggling wiht low idle while in gear. It runs fine anytime, except when stopped at light, etc. Shifting to N always solves the issue. It is causing some rather large vibration, and a big headache for me. Can you post the pictures of your "fix" for this issue (#7)

Thanks!

Yeah, I swapped the carb, but learned a lot before getting to the desicion of swaping.

I think my issue #7 was different than yours. My engine was actually OK, but the tacho was at zero RPMs.

If you check the picture of the dirty carb I posted, there is the Idle boost throttle controller in the drivers side of the carb, that one is supposed to get activated when your car is in shift.

So ask somebody to help you, one inside the car put the car in shift and in Neutral, the other make sure this throttle controller is getting activated at D and deactivated in N.

If so, then proceed to adjust the screw when the car is in shift until the RPMs are the same in shift than in neutral.

One of the problems that made me swap was that this actuator was getting on and off for no reason. I though the problem in mine was the ECU, but never changed it for another, so better swapped the carb.