Possible Alternator problem?

[EbidaDragon]

I've always had a slightly nitpicky issue with my Accord, but haven't found an exact match after some searching, though I'll be doing more around here.

My idle is what I would put at stock..looking at my stickers at least. 850 in Drive, 1k in Park/Neutral (Auto Transmission)

After a couple bottles of injector cleaner when I first bought it, the shaking at normal idle(accursed stop lights, etc.) has gone down a good bit, but there's still a bit of vibration in my steering wheel. Idle stays at what it should though, hanging about halfway between 750 and 1k.

My only problem is at night when I run the car, regardless of engine temperature. When I flip on my headlights, my idle drops a bit more than 50ish RPM, dipping real, real close to 750, and the steering wheel vibrates like it did before I threw in the injector cleaner. From looking through here, it seems like a lot of pointers are going to the carburetor, which I'm afraid of even touching, but I was wondering if the slight extra dip might be from an alternator that might need to be replaced? My lights shine just fine from my perspective, though, so I'm pretty unsure.

[Dr_Snooz]

Brace yourself for a lot of diverging answers, but I have always found that 750 rpm is too low for these cars. There's too much vibration at that speed and you'll make yourself crazy trying to get rid of it. Just bump the speed up a little bit.

[Sohcsleeper]

Yeah I experienced the same thing when I turn on the headlights. But I would agree with dr. Snooz, just turn the idle up slightly and instead of dropping to 750 it should be more like 850 or so. This should stop the vibrations quite a bit. You can do this by turning the screw that is connected to the throttle cable/spring assembly. Tigten the screw to increase the idle, but not very much at all. The screw has a metal sleeve over it and a spring under the sleeve.

[EbidaDragon]

I believe I will be getting to fiddling with my idle sometime in the next few weeks, but..not so good update.
Was driving home from work tonight, and my idle was dipping real, real low, quite a bit below the 500's when I was sitting at stoplights on the way home, and close/below 750 in park/neutral. Shaking was worse than before, and it threatened partially to dying when I stopped to check it out on the way, and seemed super rough when I parked at home, still.

Once I accelerated and was driving, things seemed perfectly fine, but idling is not fun for it right now, and I'm already way stressed enough about the car :\

[EbidaDragon]

And, on another note..been having cold start belt squeak for the past four or so days, not sure exactly which belt it is, but it mysteriously settles out to nothing once the engine's warmed up. My mechanic's probably getting a call on Monday, since I still have work under warranty, and I'm still a bit timid to get myself in too deep on a car I need every day trying to convince myself I can be a mechanic this early on.

[Hazwan]

I believe you are supposed to set your idle with the electrical load turned on unless its different on 3g Accords? Some cars even have some fancy idle control where it would get the idle faster under load.

Having the idle dropping down a little bit while your electrical is under load is perfectly normal.

[Buzo]

Another question is how are you checking your RPM? The tacho in the dash is not accurate at all. For example in mine, when the needle is pointing to 1000, the car is at 950. when it's pointing to 800, its at 700 and so on. I know it because I have a digital tacho and I can compare them.

[niles]

I believe the shop manual has instructions to use a separate hand-held type tach to use when adjusting the idle speed.

[88Accord-DX]

It does sound like the alternator is putting a load on the engine & the carb isn't getting enough fuel to keep up. These carbs are complicated with lots of vacuum stuff (probably a solenoid not working right)....You might lose some money paying someone to diagnose it verses options.