Draklian
New Member
Okay, this is gonna be a long post. I have a 92 Integra LS. The idle is surging from about 500 to 1100, it's not always that low or high, I think it varies based on the temperature of the engine and how hard I am driving it. It is always a steady surge of at least 300 RPM though. It does this all the time, regardless of engine temperature or if I am pressing on the gas.
I am not an extremely knowledgeable car person, but I have been dealing with this problem for 6~ months so I have learned a lot about it, but I still get names and things wrong so feel free to ask questions if you are unsure of the accuracy of anything I have said.
Here is a list of things I have done to try to fix it.
-Replaced the Idle Air Control Valve, replaced it 3 times, cleaned the screens on ICAV's and area on the back of the throttle body where it connects.
-Fast Idle Valve, tried cleaning it twice and then replaced it.
-Also with both the IACV and the FITV I took the air hose off the front of the throttle body to access the two holes that come from IACV and the FITV. Plugging the FITV after the car warms up makes no impact on the surge, it still does it without any change in fluctuations. Plugging the IACV causes the car to die immediately if its completely up to temperature. If I crack the throttle plate just a little bit, enough to keep the car running and then plug the IACV hole it still surges.
-Intake Air Temperature Sensor replaced with a new one.
-Coolant Temperature Sensor replaced with a new one.
-MAP Sensor, these were around $250 for a new one so I got some from a local junk yard and swapped out 3 different ones, made no impact on the surge.
-Oxygen Sensor, had a local mechanic swap this with one he had, it was reading within specification on both and appeared to be working correctly so he put the original one back on.
-Had same mechanic smoke test the system for vacuum leaks, found none. Also used carb cleaner on vacuum/air lines and found nothing.
-PCV Valve swapped with a new one. When I changed this the old one still had a rattle to it when I shook it so it was probably fine.
When this problem first started I had some CEL codes, they were 3, 5, 6, 7 and 10. These are most of the sensors listed above and after they were swapped the codes stopped showing.
Possible related/unrelated issue(s).
-When the car is cold it stutters a lot on starting it. It runs very poorly with the RPM jumping from 400~ to 1000~ and will continue doing this for a minute or so until it warms up a little. However if I give it gas it immediately drops RPM for a second and then spikes up and the rough idle goes away after a few seconds of holding the accelerator.
-Recently I had a dead battery and replaced it without doing any checks, it was a 10 year old battery anyways. About two weeks later I got CEL, never checked it and the next day my battery was dead again. I tried to bump/push start the car, (its a manual, if you pop the clutch while the car is rolling it starts the car. Was a nifty trick my room mate told me that I didn't know.) When we did this the car started but was running very badly, there was very little power from the engine and half of the electrical functions of the car didn't work very well at all. We were able to jump the car with cables and it worked just fine. I was told that most of the time this is caused by a bad alternator. Already bought an Alternator, going to change it out this weekend.
Any idea's or things to check or recheck would be greatly appreciated.
This is a short 1 min video of the Idle surge looking at the engine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FudQ5bAau00
I am not an extremely knowledgeable car person, but I have been dealing with this problem for 6~ months so I have learned a lot about it, but I still get names and things wrong so feel free to ask questions if you are unsure of the accuracy of anything I have said.
Here is a list of things I have done to try to fix it.
-Replaced the Idle Air Control Valve, replaced it 3 times, cleaned the screens on ICAV's and area on the back of the throttle body where it connects.
-Fast Idle Valve, tried cleaning it twice and then replaced it.
-Also with both the IACV and the FITV I took the air hose off the front of the throttle body to access the two holes that come from IACV and the FITV. Plugging the FITV after the car warms up makes no impact on the surge, it still does it without any change in fluctuations. Plugging the IACV causes the car to die immediately if its completely up to temperature. If I crack the throttle plate just a little bit, enough to keep the car running and then plug the IACV hole it still surges.
-Intake Air Temperature Sensor replaced with a new one.
-Coolant Temperature Sensor replaced with a new one.
-MAP Sensor, these were around $250 for a new one so I got some from a local junk yard and swapped out 3 different ones, made no impact on the surge.
-Oxygen Sensor, had a local mechanic swap this with one he had, it was reading within specification on both and appeared to be working correctly so he put the original one back on.
-Had same mechanic smoke test the system for vacuum leaks, found none. Also used carb cleaner on vacuum/air lines and found nothing.
-PCV Valve swapped with a new one. When I changed this the old one still had a rattle to it when I shook it so it was probably fine.
When this problem first started I had some CEL codes, they were 3, 5, 6, 7 and 10. These are most of the sensors listed above and after they were swapped the codes stopped showing.
Possible related/unrelated issue(s).
-When the car is cold it stutters a lot on starting it. It runs very poorly with the RPM jumping from 400~ to 1000~ and will continue doing this for a minute or so until it warms up a little. However if I give it gas it immediately drops RPM for a second and then spikes up and the rough idle goes away after a few seconds of holding the accelerator.
-Recently I had a dead battery and replaced it without doing any checks, it was a 10 year old battery anyways. About two weeks later I got CEL, never checked it and the next day my battery was dead again. I tried to bump/push start the car, (its a manual, if you pop the clutch while the car is rolling it starts the car. Was a nifty trick my room mate told me that I didn't know.) When we did this the car started but was running very badly, there was very little power from the engine and half of the electrical functions of the car didn't work very well at all. We were able to jump the car with cables and it worked just fine. I was told that most of the time this is caused by a bad alternator. Already bought an Alternator, going to change it out this weekend.
Any idea's or things to check or recheck would be greatly appreciated.
This is a short 1 min video of the Idle surge looking at the engine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FudQ5bAau00