Originally posted by 94POSintegra
OK, here's what happened with the POS. I had the car towed to the Honda dealer ($90). Upon arrival at the dealer, I went to grab one of the key-drop envelopes, and upon returning to where the car had just been deposited, the tow truck driver claimed he'd started my car. So I told him to try it again. The car started, reluctantly, and by tapping on the accelerator we managed to keep it running until it smoothed out and ran on it's own. After it ran for a few minutes, we drove it around and it seemed fine. So I paid the towing company, and drove it some more. It ran fine. I left it at the Honda dealer in case it did the same thing after it cooled off. The next morning, I went to the Honda dealer and it started right up. I left the car with the service manager who drove it some more...and he found nothing. So there you have it. It's all a big @#$%ing mystery. I put a new cap & rotor in it when I brought it home (I hope it helps). One part I did leave out of this whole saga was that earlier during the day it was towed, I actually had the thing running for about 1.5 seconds. Unfortunately, I was in the passenger seat and couldn't get to the accelerator to try and 'help' it along. The only thing I have noticed since this whole thing happened is that two times I've started it (after it's cooled off or is cold) and the RPMs fluctuated between 2000 & 1750 in about 1-1.5 second intervals. After the car has started to warm up the car would run steady around 1000 RPMs. Again, if anyone has any clues please let me know! THANKS!!
I had a similar problem in my '86 Corolla... it wound up being vacuum leaks. Make a soapy water solution and spread it on your vacuum hoses while the car is running... you'll get bubbles where it leaks, and you'll hear the sound of it trying to suck...
After replacing 3 sections of vacuum lines (total cost ~$5.00 and about an hour of time) the car idled like a dream, and it stopped "dieseling" when it was shut off...