Well, i don't know where your friend lives, but it's not in Taos. I went into Metric Motors when I first got vehicle; they gave me an estimate for how much it would cost me to bring car in to be 'checked out.' it was obscenely high, but then again, this is a resort town and even mechanics have to eat I guess. Maybe if i go back in a cry a lot they will help.

Or perhaps not.


I certainly would take this car to a mechanic if I had money; i may be just a woman, but I am not an idiot woman. i did manage to fix the MAP sensor issue after all.
I asked about the air control valve early on in this thread and was told not to adjust anything, because it had been set like that and wasn't like the old carbuerators engines.

I find it odd that after hooking up the MAP sensor wire and re-routing the hose back into engine and driving around for a while without any noticable problem, that all of a sudden I change the spark plugs and immediately this weird 'reverse idle/rpm/drive problem' begins whereas twenty minutes before I had no such problem ...except I did think the idle was a bit high and erractic and mentioned it previously, but it did nothing like it's doing now.

I think I shall put in the correct spark plugs and see what happens.

If that doesn't fix it, I will move on to investigate the IACV and the throttle body issue ....etc.

Oh, and by the way, the guy that put in the last spark plugs did not apparently bother to gap them ...they were all gapped at different widths ....so i guess the gapping doesn't matter much either. But I will gap them correctly just for the exercise.

Thanks.

 

If the only problem now is idling / stalling, but it drives OK, you will need to go beyond the spark plugs. Gapping doesn't matter much but of course it's best to have it correct.

If it were my car here's what I'd check about the idle.

The idle speed is programmed to vary according to the coolant temperature. Thus you need to have enough coolant and have it at the right temperature. With the engine completely cold, take off the radiator cap and confirm the radiator is full to the top. Put the cap back on and start the engine, confirm that it warms up normally with the dash gauge showing about halfway between C and H.

Idle the engine with transmission in Park for these tests. Disconnect the idle air hose from the side of the air box as shown in the first picture. (When no one is pressing the gas pedal, all the air the engine is using flows through this hose and the IACV.) When you block the end of the hose with your thumb, the engine should slow down to much less than normal idle, and likely stall out. If it doesn't, you need to find out how else the stray air is getting in. It is probably because someone turned up the throttle stop screw to compensate for some other problem, or that the throttle cable doesn't go slack.

If that test is OK, put the hose back and disconnect the plug on the IACV as shown in the second picture. If the IACV is working properly, it will slam shut and cut off the air to the engine, causing it to slow down and stall out like in the first test. If it doesn't, the IACV is stuck open and needs to be cleaned. Unscrew the two bolts through the top holding it to the manifold and clean the air passages on the underside with a spray carb or throttle body cleaner. You probably don't need to disconnect the small hoses on it. They contain coolant.

 

Sorry to hear that MM is a rip. I guess that was the only place he could think of;he does his own work for the most part.. Taos is not a good place for car issues.

I feel for the low funds issue;I hope you get it running correctly soon.

 

Okay, I changed the spark plugs and gapped to perfection. The engine does sound much better I will say and i seem to have more power. I still have that wire that was broken just barely held together with electrical tape, but so far the computer no linger blinks three times and it seems to run stronger ...not sure yet about what kind of mileage i will get.

I also adjusted the idle adjustment screw, which i had to because the idle was running way too high....I turned it all the way to the end....to the right and the idle got better. Still it is high, but better.

The engine light on the dashboard FINALLY went off after I adjusted the idle screw!
It has been on since I got car.


I spent all day Tuesday trying to unhitch the fast idle thernovalve from it's electrical connection which was inconveniently way down behind the engine and was unsuccessful. i saw online how one could open it up, clean it if need be and check to see if it still looked okay ...they showed a bad looking one on Utube video ....I figured that since I have read that these valves can go bad and that was one of the things to look for with an erratic idle or a way too high idle i would start there. But I could not unhitch it from it's electrical connection and could not work on it in vehicle because of the angle it was positioned so i have no idea if the thing is any good, but I find it suspect.

I bought a Chilton manual which I have found mostly unhelpful. i wanted a Haynes, but no one had it and someone then told me that Haynes bought Chilton and that they were basically the same. I found more helpful information online actually, but am still trying to study this manual for tips.

The pollution device, i guess it is called the erg or erv valve or whatever it is called is not hooked up properly and it talked about recirculation of fumes back into intake manifold and I wonder if that might have some effect on the wayward idle.

I looked at your photos here, but do not recognize the big black circular thing in photo one ....I do no think I have this on my car...however, I do recognize the IACV valve ....but mine has white plastic thing on the end. I thought about taking this out and trying to clean it as shown on Utube, but after spending the day trying to get the fast idle thermovalve out and failing, I am hesitant to go through that again. i also don't want to make anything worse.

I will look into where and what my air box thing looks like and where it is located on my car and see if I can do your test, although my car only idles in neutral ....it's standard so i don't have 'park'.

My tempt gauge has not worked properly since the last guy changed out the rotor and cap ...it seems to work a little bit ...never really comes up all the way where it used to between C and H ....I tried to check the wires in the engine where I think they are, but that doesn't seem to impact it ....I do not know if the needle on gauge is stuck or what ...sometimes if I bang on dashboard really hard the needle comes up a little bit, so it is hard for me to use this in a test. I don't know what to do about it ...I hate the idea of having to take off the entire dashboard set up just to get at gauge, but since the needle moves a little bit, it seems to me it is not a loose wire problem or a bad fuse but amechanical problem with needle on the gauge ...any suggestions? It worked fine before the last guy worked on car ...I think someone said the wire was behind the distributor ,.,,there are a bunch of them and I do not exactly which one is the temp gauge. i will try and see if I can find it in this manual.

The problem with the Chilton manual is all of the photos are for models made between 1984 -1988, and mine is a 1991 and looks radically different to me than these pictures.


The current situation with idle is that it usually starts idleing pretty high; at 1250rpm ...which I guess could be normal when cold ....but then as the engine continues to warm up, the idle creeps up even higher, usually to around 1700 or even 2000 rpms. if I just let the car sit there and idel for a while ....five to ten minutes, sometimes it will fall back down to around 1500, 1400 ....and then after driving it a bit, it may idle at around 900-1000-1100 rpms, which I think is still a little high but better than the than the higher rates.


I will reread your advice and instructions and try to implement the testing procedure you recommend.

PS I already tried the test with the IACV electrical plug unplugged and the engine just stalled out ...i assume that means the IACV is working properly then?

Should I now turn my attention back to the fast idle thermo-valve as the suspected cuprit? Does anyone know how to unhitch this from the electrical connector on a 1991 Honda wagon? It must be done with one had by the way because of the position it occupies ....I just cannot figure out how anyone could change this t5hign out when you can't get it out of vehicle? i can unbolt it easy off the engine.

Thanks for the helpful photos and advice!
Cal-Gurl