removing the fast idle valve

[newaccorddriver]

i was wondering if its possible to remove the fast idle valve without harming/shortening the life of the engine.

[Kabuki]

i was wondering if its possible to remove the fast idle valve without harming/shortening the life of the engine.

Short answer: Yes. Short question: Why?

[charlesb2003]

i'll take this one. because i'm sick of having the car rev up to like 2000 rpm at startup and then when i shift into drive the whole car jerks forward. i know this can't be good for my tranny or my engine mounts... so i was wondering the same thing. i know it's an emissions control device, to warm up the cat quickly at startup, but other than that, does it have any purpose? also, isn't revving the hell out of a cold engine at startup bad anyway? so it should actually increase the life of the engine, right?

[A20A1]

I disabled the fast idle on my corolla... never looked back.
I how is it emissions? I figure if you warm up your car you wont have fast idle durring the test.

[charlesb2003]

well emissions meaning in general, not to pass a smog test. you should be able to pass it either way, as long as the car's warmed up. but it's there to warm up the cat on cold starts so it can start working quicker.

[Honda-Master]

you will need it to help for better start up the engine on cold winter weather ,,,,,,,As for emissions it should not effect it at all .

[charlesb2003]

oh i see... that makes sense. i always forget about winter-type stuff, living down here it never gets cold enuff to need any of that.

[spnrx]

how would I kill that little thing. Where is the fast idle valve and how do I remove it?

[Oldblueaccord]

i'll take this one. because i'm sick of having the car rev up to like 2000 rpm at startup and then when i shift into drive the whole car jerks forward. i know this can't be good for my tranny or my engine mounts... so i was wondering the same thing. i know it's an emissions control device, to warm up the cat quickly at startup, but other than that, does it have any purpose? also, isn't revving the hell out of a cold engine at startup bad anyway? so it should actually increase the life of the engine, right?

I'm assuming you have a fuel injection car.

The fast idle can be adjusted. Take the top off the valve,3 phillips screws I think, and you see a plastic pluger. you can turn it with a quarter or a giant screw driver. Drop some oil on it and turn it in about 1 turn and try it cold. Mine was high like that and made the car rattle on start up I got it down too 1500 rpm easily.

wp

[bobafett]

hmm i would love to remove mine... ill play around with it in the next couple weeks, and report if i find that the car runs like shit or runs ok without it. i just recently figured out how to adjust it so my cold idle is good, and now i want to remove it hehe

[carotman]

Wel, the fast idle valve won't do any harm to the engine. if you have a problem with it just replace it. There's no real gain in disabling the fast idle valve.

[spnrx]

Mine is carbed....I should have a FIV?

[bobafett]

carot: do you feel there is a compelling reason 'not' to remove it? it never gets really really cold where i live, and i am trying to just de-clutter and simplify my engine bay, it would be nice to disable this feature, just to get rid of the coolant lines that have to cruise around.

if its one of those things where the car will never ever want to start when its cold then i probably want to keep it. but if it just wont really move properly until its warmed up, then i can use patience and let it warm up for a bit. i just want to make sure it will idle more or less without it. heh.

[carotman]

There is no harm in removing the fast idle valve at all. It's just a nice feature to have on those cold fall nights :p

The only thing it would do is give a little bit of cold idle problem depending of the weather out there.

The car might idle a bit too low and die but once warmed up, the fast idle valve isn't even operating so everything is going to be fine.

[bobafett]

cool. thats totally fine... my idle is set a bit higher because of my cam anyway, so im sure it will be ok.