idle problem... not an emergency but its annoying

[J_Jay_B]

ok so when i first got this car i was stupid and one of my friends told me to tighten up the throttle cable. well me being the stupid 16 year old that i was i tightened it up too far and now only when the car is cold is has an extremely high idle (2500). the car also runs really rich when its cold. now i know that when the car is cold it will idle higher, but my friends teg (different friend from the above idiot) idles at 1500 max when its freezing outside. my car will do this thru the entire year summer winter and everything in between until the car gets up to its normal operating temp, then the idle goes back down to regular (500-800) and no longer runs rich. also when cold and idling high the rpm's will bounce between 1500 and 2500 continuously, but this also stops when it gets to normal operating temp.

with that being said i have had this problem for about 1 1/2 years and recently got tired of it, so i turned the car on and slowly let the throttle cable go until i thought it was where it belonged (did not do this with car on tho, only turned it on to make sure the car was cold enough for the high idle) i let it go until there was some slack in it, how it was before this problem when i first got the car. ran some seafoam and lucas oil injection cleaner thru it but still no change in idle or rpm bouncage. it still idles at the same spot until it warms up and the rpm's still bounce like a little kid on a trampoline.

as you can tell this would be very annoying while driving because ppl think i am doin this on purpose while sitting at a red light... most of the time i will let it warm up before i drive but i cant always do that...

so my question after all of this is what do i do to fix this problem... take it to a shop? or which one of those many idle/intake valves can i check?

 

[J_Jay_B]

anyone?

even if its not helpful and just an idea i will try it

 

[jdmjim]

morning dude. if you dont have any vacume leaks check the idle air control valve. its on the back of the intake manifold.try tapping on it while its acting up,if it smooths out its prob bad.

 

[dc2b18]

sounds pretty normal to be honest..

 

[slambedcivic]

sounds pretty normal to be honest..

Its not normal at all, your idle should never surge.

OP, First off, you fixing your throttle cable was good. You should have about 3/4 of an inch of play up and down (3/8 up and 3/8 down to = 3/4) Now that thats all good, I would look towards your FITV (fast idle thermo valve) Its attached to your throttle body with 3 10mm bolts. Ive always found it easiest to remove the throttle body to fix this. Make sure you dont break the throttle body gasket because you can reuse it.

Once you get the throttle body off, you dont have to remove the three 10mm bolts. All you have to do is take the 2 phillips head/8mm bolts off of the one end of the FITV (use the 8mm if you have it so you dont strip the head of the phillips out), when you get those off youll see a while piece of plastic inside. you need to take a standard screw driver and screw that plunger all of the way in, and back it out 1/2 of a turn. Reinstall all parts and this should fix your problem. Hope this helps.

 

[mugensix]

im living here in calgary alberta canada..
and its soo freezing i cant find my dick ahahaha
but my car still idles at around 1200rpm.. max!
but for some reason my accord idles around 2200rpm when its cold in the morning

 

[J_Jay_B]

Its not normal at all, your idle should never surge.

OP, First off, you fixing your throttle cable was good. You should have about 3/4 of an inch of play up and down (3/8 up and 3/8 down to = 3/4) Now that thats all good, I would look towards your FITV (fast idle thermo valve) Its attached to your throttle body with 3 10mm bolts. Ive always found it easiest to remove the throttle body to fix this. Make sure you dont break the throttle body gasket because you can reuse it.

Once you get the throttle body off, you dont have to remove the three 10mm bolts. All you have to do is take the 2 phillips head/8mm bolts off of the one end of the FITV (use the 8mm if you have it so you dont strip the head of the phillips out), when you get those off youll see a while piece of plastic inside. you need to take a standard screw driver and screw that plunger all of the way in, and back it out 1/2 of a turn. Reinstall all parts and this should fix your problem. Hope this helps.

alright i will try this over winter break.. is running rich connected with the high idle, or is this just something i will have to live with while the car is cold.