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Engine idle speed problem and check engine light is on.

R

RangerX

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Location
United Kingdom
Car
Honda Accord 99
Hi, I have a '99 Honda Accord 1.8 auto and me and my wife recently went to London. I used cruise control most of the way. The next day when I started up the car the engine revs were a bit high, at around 2000 rpm, but then I thought that the car usually does this as it tries to warm up, so didnt worry about it much. My drive to my workplace takes around 15 mins, so half way through I get the check engine orange light. The car drives fine except when I stop the revs go really low and shows 0 on the tach and the whole car vibrates, I am very poor in describing this. On my return journey nothing happened the check engine light was off but the low idle speed was a problem. So, I check this forum and through the paper clip method found out it flashes 7 times, which corresponds to a TPS malfunction. Now my question is do I replace this part or do I just clean it? My logic for replacing the part is, its a 13 year old car and the part might have corroded or something. I am pretty apt at doing repairs myself, so if anyone could point me in the right direction would be good. I almost forgot to mention, yesterday when I tightened the accelerator cable by about two turns of the nut the problem went away but I now have the idle speed at around 1000 rpm and 1500rpm. So I have un-done the two turns and it stutters. Hope someone can help me.
 
Hello John..

I'd be pulling the air intake hose off (two jubilee clips) and a breather hose roundabout the middle, coming from the rocker cover and have a physical look at the throttle body and butterfly valve. Maybe spray in some throttle cleaner and have a rag to catch any excess. I cleaned mine out last year as a bit of preventative maintenance and some gunk did run out.

Also if you are have an erratic idle there is a chance your IACV (idle air control valve) might be sticking aswell as an issue with the Throttle Position Sensor. If your throttle is gunked then maybe there is some gunk hindering the IACV. That is just a bit behind and to the right of the Throttle Position Sensor. I've not cleaned mine out yet, it was awkward to access without removing the throttle body I felt. I think the throttle body and IACV gaskets are recommended to be replaced if you do decide to start taking things apart there.

Obviously there is the chance the sensor is might be faulty too but I'd start by having a look for the obvious.

The throttle cable should be capable of a 10-12mm deflection and no clearance on cruise control. I don't have cruise control so don't exactly know if that just means no deflection :unsure: ..
 
Thank you very much Andy. So I will be visiting the local Halfords to get a throttle cleaner and I will report back on how it goes.
 
RangerX said:
Thank you very much Andy. So I will be visiting the local Halfords to get a throttle cleaner and I will report back on how it goes.
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This is what I did, I cleaned the throttle body and then cleaned the iacv, which was a real pain to get out with the pipes and all. Started the car first time took a bit of cranking as I think the cleaner needed to be flushed out?? I car then idled at around 2k rpm, which I felt strange. I had read somewhere that u need to reset the ecu after the repairs, so pulled the battery terminal out and then removed the backup fuse for 1 minute, although it said 30 seconds. Reconnected the battery and started up to see the car now idling at 1.5k, so when I checked the cruise control cable, there was a lot more tension than what I previously felt, so loosened this up and the car now idles at around 650 to 1k. The rpm readings were taken from looking at the tach, so maybe wrong, but it sounds the correct rpm as being an automatic there is no jerks when gear changes. Will drive for a couple for days and update here. I highly recommend the cleaner that Halfords has, it is amazing, is just had to spray 3 or 4 times and all the black junk came pouring out. Thanks especially to Andy for pointing me where to look.
 
Nice work mate. Hondas really take well to a throttle clean. They get bunged up over time. Stripped my brothers civic throttle down a while back and gave it a good clean. It really runs better after that. I think if you put the car in neutral then you can get a good idle reading. Should be round the 700rpm mark.
 
Thanks guys for the replies. I facing with a new problem, after the clean, I have noticed that I have better mileage but the car idles at 1500 rpm. But when I put it into drive the idle speed reduces to normal at around 750 rpm. I have tried adjusting and cleaning the cables, both accelerator and cruise control. Do you guys know where to set the idle speed? Thanks a lot again.
 
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