kmak

Hi guys,

I'm new here, recently purchased a 1988 Acura Integra 5spd to teach my sister how to drive stickshift.

Recently, this car developed a case where the idle fluctuates between 400 rpm and 2000 rpm. Usually, when you first start the car, the idle will jump between 1300 and 2000rpms (the engine starts at 1300, then revs to 2000, stays there for a split second, dies back down to 1300, then repeats). after a few minutes of this, the fluctuations will die down to 400 to 1500 rpms. I believe it may be an idle control problem, as when it dies down to 400, it seems to start at 500 or so rpm (normal idle), then it dips to 400 rpms, and you start to feel the car shake a bit, then it immediately jumps up to 1500 or so, stays there for a split second, then dies back down to 500.

The weird thing is that if we play with the Air conditioning enough, the problem seems to go away for a little bit.

On my other car (a BMW 328is), I've heard of this problem before, and usually it turns out to be a clogged idle control valve (small valve next to the throttle that helps stablize the idle) or a bad oxygen sensor. I've sprayed down the intake/throttle with some throttle / valve cleaner, and that didn't seem to help at all. Does anyone have an idea on what else may be causing this? I'm thinking about running some fuel injector cleaner through my tank to make sure it's not the fuel injectors that are being clogged.

Thanks
-Ken