(The car is a 92 integra with b16a) I’ve been having an idle issue for the past month. It just bounces up and down and wont stay steady. Last night I replaced the iacv, pcv, all my vacuum lines, took the chip off my ecu and ran it on the stock chip, tested my tps, and nothing fixed it. I also checked my oil and there was nothing on my dipstick. Now i’ve never had an issue with my motor burning oil, and i’ve never seen my dipstick have nothing on it. I added a qt and it brought the level up to normal. Now today I was driving and my step dad was driving behind me and he said he saw white smoke coming from my exhaust when I accelerated hard. I know that is normally caused by coolant in the combustion chamber but, I haven’t been losing any coolant at all. My thought is either it is my head gasket, my valve seals, or my piston rings. The car runs perfectly when driving. It’s just the idle that is acting up. I’m gonna do a compression test tonight to check if my rings are shot. My question is, Can a blown head gasket, bad valve seals, or bad rings be what has been causing my idle issues for the past month? The engine has roughly 110xxx miles on it, stock internals, never had boost on it.
Ok so just did the compression test. I did a dry test and a wet test where I added a teaspoon of oil into the cylinder.
(FYI I used the cylinder closest to the distributor as #4)
Dry Test :
Cyl # 1 - 215
Cyl # 2 - 215
Cyl # 3 - 190
Cyl # 4 - 235
Wet Test :
Cyl # 1 - 240
Cyl # 2 - 250
Cyl # 3 - 235
Cyl # 4 - 270
Cylinder # 3 was my lowest and has always been my lowest. I did this test when I first got the car 2 years ago and # 3 was a bit low then too. I don’t think I have to worry about anything, but I shot this video right before I did the test to see if any smoke came out.
Unplug the wire from the EACV (Electronic Air Comtrol Valve)it is on the back of the intake manifold. (This is what controls the engine idle speed, when it is up to temp over 100 deg F.) if this stops the erratic engine speed then clean EACV.
If not check
The fast idle valve it is under the throttle body. Should only come into play untill the engine is up to temp about 100 deg F) If you remove intake air duct and put your finger over the the lower hole. if this stops the erratic engine speed you need to clean the fast idle valve. the info on how to do this in teg tip
Let us know what it is.
Here is the write up
http://forums.g2ic.com/showthread.php?42969-Teg-Tip-Bad-Idle-Troubleshooting&highlight=eacv
I cleaned my eacv or iacv (idle air control valve) about a week ago. It didn’t fix it so I went to the junkyard and picked up 2 more. I cleaned the new one and put it on and the problem is still there. When I unplug it the surging stops and it idles really low. If I plug that hole in the throttle body that goes to the iacv I get the same result as unplugging it. I don’t have a fast idle valve on my car. I did a vacuum test today. I hooked the gauge up to the hose that goes to the pcv valve. The vacuum was 20hg with the ac off and 17hg with the ac on. Then I waited for the idle to start surging and watched the gauge. The vacuum fluctuated between 20 and 22hg
Mine had the same problem on my b18c1. It has been burning oil since the swap I just put in last month…ok on the rpms going up and down I had that too right after I punch my car and hit vtec. Pulled to a stop and all of sudden it just started doing that. Vrooooom…vrooooom…vrooooom…like idle issues jumping From like 1000 to 2000…I thought it would be the iacv…took it off and sprayed it with carb cleaner. Let it dry and installed. Nope same problem. Lucky me I had a extra b18c1 manifold complete…I took off the other one and cleaned it too…slapped it on and same problem still.
So I figured it came down to the fitv I believe that’s what it’s called. Right there on the throttle body. It has like 2 Phillips screws. I took it off and shook it. I notice it was making noise as I shook it. And I had another one that wasn’t on my throttle body and took it off too and compared it. The one that i washt using didnt make noise…So that right there made me find out what the problem was. So i slapped it on the one i wasnt using and fixed the problem…The thing in there was loose on the previous one that was making noise…It is a threaded white thing in there and what you have to do is just tighten it up…and no more noise when shaking it…
Try that right there…take off the gold plated cover with 2 Phillips screws and retighten that piece in there.
I’m glad you got yours figured out, but I don’t have a fast idle valve. My motor has never had one on it and it never was an issue. I put my motor back in the car in October and it was perfect up until about a month ago when this started. When the motor was out all I did was replace the clutch and paint it and my engine bay. Sooo not like I replaced anything internal that might of been wrong. I’m in desperate need to figure this out cause i can no longer drive it because the inspection is out and it wont pass unless i have a steady idle.
If ur car doesn’t have a ficv I can’t help. My b18c1 had same problem and fixed it by taking ficv out, tore it apart, cleaned screen, cleaned it thoroughly with carb cleaner, replaced seal and put it back on. That did it. But before I had done all that to stop the up and down idle for emissions testing I would put dad in gear and slowly let clutch slowly until idle sounded about where it should be. I then took car out of gear and let clutch out and idle stayed normal. I know it sounds f****** up but it got me past emissions testing. The tester watched me do it and was cool with it. If ur trying to get past emissions give it a shot. Hope this helps
Ok going back to this thread instead of making a new one.
I’ve been working with this issue since march and nothing has fixed it. I don’t have the white smoke and burning oil anymore, that was a weird one time thing. The idle bouncing around is the issue i’m still dealing with. Let me go through a list of the things I’ve done to try and solve it.
-
Replaced iacv
I took the working iacv off my db1 and put it on my da, but the idle still bounced around. I put the original iacv from my da onto my db1 and it worked fine on that car so the iacv is NOT my problem -
Replaced all my vacuum lines
I went through each vacuum line and replaced each one of them with new hoses.
-Replaced the intake manifold and throttle body gasket
The throttle body gasket is new and I just put a new intake manifold gasket on earlier today. I thought that pos hondata thermal gasket was the issue, but nope.
-I bled my coolant system and made sure there is no air
There isn’t any air in my coolant system
I do not have a fitv so it’s not that. When I cover the tb with my hand the car quickly stalls, same thing happens when I cover the hole inside the tb leading to the iacv.
My idle seems alright until my fan kicks on or my headlights are on and then it starts acting up. I checked my voltages at the battery and the alternator during the time it’s stable and the time it acts up and it’s all the same. Battery has 13.5v and the alt is putting out 14.3.
I have air getting into my motor from somewhere, I just can’t figure out where. I’ve tried and replaced everything now. I’m completely out of ideas! I need help with this. I have hardly driven the car since march and it’s bumming me out to the point where I’m ready to sell it. Anyone have any other ideas other than the ones I mentioned
Just a thought though I did just have an idea. What if, I go to the junkyard and cut the plug off another iacv and then use it a tester for the wiring. I can hook wires to that one and run them straight to my ecu. I’ll use the junkyard one that way I don’t have to cut into my harness. If it still acts the same then I know my wiring is good.
Here is the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgMim0spa0E&feature=youtu.be
When I turned the headlights on and it revs up, it’s doing that on it’s own. I’m standing outside of the car this whole time. It doesn’t do it every time I turn the lights on, just some of the time. Some times it does it when the fogs come on. I couldnt get my fan to kick on during this, it wasn’t hot enough in my garage. It drives me nuts!
if ur getting air into ur motor, check ur coolant overflow tank, i did so much work on my last car headgasket, all kinds of shit, turns out just my cap on the overflow tank was letting some air get into the motor total fail and waste of almost a grand
That doesn’t make sense. If that were the case I would have air in my coolant system. Which I don’t cause I bled it yesterday. I’m talking about air getting into the motor like a vacuum leak
oh okay, yea sorry misunderstood, it was 430am when i wrote that lol
It’s cool, thanks for trying to help
Checked all my vacuum lines again, they’re all good. Hooked a vacuum gauge up and it holds right around 20-23hg (doesn’t bounce or shake when the idle is good). When the idle starts acting up the vacuum then moves, but that’s just cause the engine is revving it self up a bit. I sprayed water on everything and check for bubbles, but didn’t see any. Drove it arpund and it’ll act fine at one stop sign and then act up at the next.
hmm…
Have you replaced the MAP sensor? bouncy idle can be attributed to that sucker.
FYI look for em used on ebay. 24 bucks versus 400 at the auto parts store makes a huge difference. I went that route and was a happy camper.
Can also check pick-n-pull… either way a new MAP is just too expensive on it’s own if you ask me. Make sure you get a “Denso” also.
the map sensor is easy to test. at idle, you should see roughly .5v. KOEO, should see about 3v. KOEO simulates WOT, since you obviously cant test at WOT.
always confirm first, then replace
Haven’t tried another map sensor yet, i’ll test it though
Here is what went down today…
I got a spare iacv connector and ran some new wires from it to the ecu, just to test if maybe something in my wiring was bad. I started the car and everything seemed fine, although after a few minutes my idle started bouncing again. So wiring is not an issue.
Some other peopel told me to trya new tb so I swapped mine out for a new one and no change. I then thought well maybe the tps is acting up so I swapped that…but I don’t think I put it on right cause now i’m getting a cel #7 for the tps =\ Oops lol. I’ll get that fixed tomorrow. I also need a new tb gasket since mine is all messed up now.
My car has been having trouble starting recently and the battery has been low, so tonight it decided it wasn’t gonna start at all. Normally I can pump the gas and get it started, but not tonight. I hooked up my battery charger and got the battery up to 13.5 volts…but the car still wouldn’t start. It just made that clicking noise like the battery was dead. I checked the voltage again and it was at 13.8…this got me confused so I swap the battery from my db1 into my da and tried again. It started right up that time with the other battery. I then took the faulty battery and put it into my db1 and it wouldn’t start that car either, even though it’s reading over 13v. So my battery is shot =[
Now I couldn’t let my da run on the new battery cause the cel for the tps was causing it to die unless I held up the revs. I’m wondering if maybe, just maybe my battery being bad, or going bad over the past few months is whats been causing all my idle problems. Maybe it’s causing strain on the electrical system and that’s why my idle only acts up every now and then…I will get this all sorted out if my life depends on it lol.
Plan for tomorrow is to get a new tb gasket, fix the tps cel, test map sensor, hopefully start it up and hear it purr like a kitten =] (fingers crossed on that, but I think if that happens hell will freeze over)
Put the new tps and tb gasket on and no change. But then…
I think I just figured out what my problem is (fingers crossed don’t wanna jinx it). This might take a second to explain. When I had my tb off I could hold it up to the light and see light coming through around the
edge of the plate and the inner wall. Now that it’s on my car, if I rev it up by hand and then release it real quick the throttle plate gets sort of stuck in the closed position and it takes some force with my hand to open it up. But during that time that it’s stuck closed my car idles perfectly, the a/f ratio is perfect, I can turn my lights and ac on and it continues to idle perfect, the fan comes on and idle stays normal as well. If I rev it up though and slowly release the throttle plate to where it just sits closed like it would if I were using the pedal, my car acts fine for a minute or two and then starts doing that bouncing idle. If I let the plate slam closed and get stuck again my car idles perfectly for any amount of time. I think the fact that when the plate is just sitting closed (when I could see light shinning through it) it’s letting air passed it and that is whats causing my idle problem. I adjusted that throttle plate stop screw and it’s as closed as it will go and it still lets light in when i was looking through it. That leads me to believe that is my problem. I let it slam closed (which when holding it off the car didn’t let any light through the plate and the wall) and my idle is good. I slowly close it and my idle goes nuts cause there is that small gap for air to get through. I think I need a new tb. Any thoughts on this? (sorry that was so long)