What's new

Idle speed 'surging'

superste

Members
Messages
92
Reaction score
19
Location
Ormskirk
Car
Accord VTEC 1.8 S
I've been out of the country for nearly 3 months and my 1.8 manual has been sitting on the drive, with an occasional turnover from the wife. Came back on Friday, tried her and she started up, no problem (the car, not the wife). Slightly sluggish to crank, so took her out for some spirited driving, help charge the battery. I soon noticed that the idle speed was surging, going from approx 1200 to approx 2700 rpm at standstill, over a 3 to 4 second period, constantly repeating. My normal idle was 800 to 1000 rpm, I seem to remember.
I've had a trawl of the forums and the obvious candidates are the idle air control valve (iacv) and throttle body, with people saying the car benefits from a clean out of the latter. Is there a guide to the removal/cleaning of the iacv? Or could it be something else entirely? Suggestions welcomed.
 
Update - I took it to a local Garage who had it for the day but did nothing. Don't think they fancied getting 'in' to the iacv due to its awkward location! So I had a go, unbolted it but left it attached to the hoses, gave it a good squirt of carb cleaner and reattached it. No change initially, then after a couple of days the surge was gone. Been away for a couple of months and it's still fine. Fingers crossed it's sorted.
 
Sounds like what ever it had had cleaned itself through. Could be a fuel issue or anything else. If anything cleaning the iac was a good maintenance measure.
 
Top