Hi, newbie here, and having alot of problems with my Honda Civic Balti. I drove upto to see a friend at unitoday, and while driving back, my car packed up again. As it was motorway driving, it was fine, until I got off junctions, came to roundabouts etc. Everytime I went to put the clutch down, the battery andoil light appeared on my dashboard, cutting out my engine, so i had to restart everytime I came to a set of lights! Eventually it packed up completely and when I started the engine, it would tick over for a couple of seconds, then the engine would die, showing the batt & oil light again on my dashboard. The RAC came out to see me and looks like it's fixed for the moment. My battery, oil etc was all fine.The RAC chapwrote this as the report: "Possible carb fault: Engine keeps cutting out, idle speed low - adjusted Throttle cable as a temp measure."

I managed to get the carhome (I was 100 miles from home, so I was a nervous wreck the whole time!).. any suggestions or advice for what I should do now? I'm doing a 600 mile round-trip to the south-west of England in a few days in the car, but obviously very worried now!!

Thanks in advance,
Eddy.

 

You should have fuel injection on a '94 not a carb. Let's hope so. On the fuel injected ones, there is an electric valve that controls the idle speed by bypassing air around the throttle plate. This is called the IACV or EACV and it often gives trouble. If it's stuck closed, the car will stall everytime you try to idle like you experienced. Try cleaning it first because it's expensive to replace.

Edit: Also it's normal for the oil and battery lights to come on whenever the key is on but the engine is not running for whatever reason.

 

Also the temporary fix of tightening the throttle cable is workable for a while until you get tired of it revving too high at idle all the time. You are still OK for a long trip as long as this is the only problem.

 

Brilliant, thanks for the help and advice. It does rev very high & is very noisy, but if it'll get me to and from for my trip, then I won't get it looked at just yet then...

Thanks again!