The idle on my POS 1990 Accord will surge until the car is warm. This seems to be a common thing with 4th gen Accords.

It's still driveable in this condition obviously and I'm probably not going to fix it, but am more curious as to why it is doing this?

 

it's the cold air idle valve on the intake manifold, it sounds like the little plastic vien is backed out. All you have to do is locate the cold air idle valve, take off the two screws on the top cap, rotate the yellow plastic vien thing clockwise, it will have a cross cut into it for a screwdriver. You just rotate it until it stops at the bottom of the cyl. it should make that surging go away.

 

Surging can be caused by many possibilities (yea i'm sure that helped a lot...)

Here are some I'm aware of:
- Fuel system clogged somewhere, try one of those cleaners you can buy and add to your gas (some people don't believe in these...but others agree with their results)

- Idle set too low...(but you say it's only happening when it's cold...so not sure)

-Spark plug not firing well...change them.

-Valves...might need adjusting. This happens with all cars, over time valves may not open/close all the way at the right time to the camshaft. But for a car to SURGE...one or more valves must be really screwed up. maybe a valve is damaged and doens't open/close right until enough oil has circulated. That's my guess.

- Worst case scenario...compression on one of your cylinders is off...maybe O-ring is bad...(again, if this is the case, then it should surge warm too)


Hope this helps...though you already don't plan on fixing it...hehe. Dood...your 90 accord would be faster than the rest if you drop in a H22!...just a thought

 

Don't tempt me, I've thought about it. There's no rust, as the 3/4 panels are new and the entire body is primered. The interior is clean, has fully adjustable Tokico coilovers that are worth more than the car. Potential yes, but I don't have the time.

I'm going to sell it to someone who does though.

 

i'm telling you, just do what I said and it will fix it. this is common on 90-93 accords

 

4th gen Accord + H22 + 5speed = you get the point

I hear you can get a decent mileaged H22 with tranny from japan for about $1500...

i even know someone who's dad imports engines from japan.

So much potential... hehe =)

 

you sound like you know what your doing... PLEASE HELP ME....

I have idle surging ever since i sprayed Throttle body cleaner into the TB. Id doesnt always surge, it will not surge without the intake tubing connected, it surges in D or N only, it seems to go on/off with the A/C sometimes.... and it does not do it when cold.
They jump 1k- 1.5 k continuosly for maybe 10-15 times, then stops, the starts again on/off. It doesnt always have this problem... and when it does surge, i can pull back on the pedal, to lower the RPM's and the surging stops.
Please help.

thanks
Sean

 

wat about on the 5th gen accords? i seem to be having a similiar prob. surges at 1500-2k till ti warms up, usually 7-8min, bad valve possible like the other guy said?

 

surging?...like fluctuating or just holding high?...common...i don't think i have this problem

 

surging between 1500-2k for the first 8 min i start the car on a cold morning. ANY ONE HAVE ANY CLUES?