She runs just fine. The only prob is when I stop at lights or whatever she idles very low, sometimes idling around 600 or 700 then slowly dropping to almost nothing and jumping back up to almost 1000, regardless if I'm running AC or not. the engine light came on as well. I'm guessing its the O2 sensors considering I've had it for a couple of years and never touched em. ANyone else think otherwise?

 

I took it to a guy I know and he read the codes for the check engine light. He said it was callin out a #4 cylinder misfire. I needed to change the plugs and wires anyway, so that's what I did. But no change. Still idles real low to almost a stall. I need some help here.

 

clean or replace the iacv ,..and try bleeding the coolant

 

once the car reaches normal operating temperature I believe the standard for a Civic is ~650 rpm at idle. The dropping is what worries me. Have you tried cleaning out your throttle body?

 

No I have not. My father-in-law seems to think that I am burning cooling fluid, which to me makes sense. So right now we are running some kind of sealant fluid through the cooling system.

 

Keep us posted Joe

 

I havent completely fixed it but here's what I have done so far (mostly help from my wife's dad): first we drained the coolant and ran through some sealant stuff (long process). then replaced spark plugs & wires, replaced distributor rotor & cap. AT this point we ****ed around with the spark plugs and wires, taking the #4 plug out while it was running to see if anything changed (originally had a #4 cylinder misfire with ****ty idle) and basically killed the ignition coil. Replaced that and the module to try to get the CEL to go away. Lastly we replaced the fuel filter and cleaned out the #4 fuel injector. Maybe we went overboard a little but she runs better. However the CEL is still on and it idles a bit rough still, but def not as bad as before. During this whole process a friend of his brought over a compression tester and said the #4 had less pressure than the others. Could that be the cause of the CEL? Other than that she runs fine. Wanna get rid of that damn light tho. ANd no I havent tried cleaning out the throttle body. Dont think I need to but I could be wrong.

 

Cleaning the throttle body is SUPER easy and only takes a few minutes. Best of all, it's a free process! (Unless you pull it off completely and buy a new, $5 gasket). Gunk builds up in there and can keep the "flap" from closing all the way.

As for your compression question, we'd need to see the numbers to make an accurate call. If it's only 4 or 5 psi lower than the others, than it's not a big deal. It's when you're up around the 10% or more lower that you need to be concerned.

 

Pulling plug wires with the engine running is hard on the coil as you found. You can safely check for dead cylinders by unplugging the fuel injectors one at a time instead. Check for air leaks in the intake manifold gasket where it attaches to the head at #4. Also I'd try swapping the #4 injector with one of the other ones and see if the misfiring moves with it.

 

Since I wasnt there when it happened, I can only go by what I was told. I guess the #4 was only getting 90 lbs pressure when the others were getting 120. I dont know if that is correct, but that's what I was told. I haven't done any research yet to what the pressures are supposed to be.