I did not take my old civic to the same mechanic every time because i am at college and my normal mechanic was not open at the time. So it could not be the mechanic. Also, we did not spend the money on a new distributor from Honda for my old Civic because it was not worth it. I don't know if a new one from honda would have worked better or not. I would be more inclined to believe that eairly hondas like this just have distributor problems like one of the above replys. I did spend the extra hundred dollors on a new distributor for this car and so far it seems to be working great and my car runs a little better.

By the way, thank you for your suggestion, i will try it when i have some free time. And i just spray it on, there is no unbolting of parts or anything like that ( i am a bit afraid of taking an engine apart seeing as this is my only nice car and i can not afford to fix it if i were to break it)? Also, i was wondering if the idle problem would have anything to do with driving my car hard?

 

The IAC has two bolts that hold it to the throttle body. If you have a Haynes manual from the auto parts store (or better- an official Helms manual) it will show you it's location. It is rather easy to remove, just take it off carefully and don't damage the gasket. There are two hoses attached to the lower end- you can leave them attached. Once removed from the throttle body, you will see the screen. BTW, this is listed in the Helms manual as the 1st thing to check for rough idle. But, of course there could be many other things to cause it as have been mentioned. You should also throw a bottle of fuel injector cleaner in. You may have a partial clogged fuel injector. The Chevron Techron stuff is great (a bit more $, but works great)

good luck