Ok, so my Accord has spent the last 5 months in the driveway, while I was out of town. Upon my return I've discovered the following conditions:

While in Park the engine continuously cycles, it revs up to 1500rpm and down the normal 800rpm.

While in Drive the engine rpm does not drop below 1250/1300 rpm. It occsionally sputters and bucks slightly when I remove my foot from the accelerator at speed.

While accelerating, the car acts normally with no sputter or engine slippage.

I decided the first step was to replace the fuel and air filters, so I went out and bought the replacement parts. The recommended air filter does not fit and the fuel filter is nowhere to be found.

After further investigation, I noticed the car was manufactured in the US in December of 1997. I'm assuming that the Accord has the '98 setup (i.e - fuel filter in tank) instead of the '97 setup. Is this a safe assumption?

It's the V6 engine (110k mi) and I'm taking it to Autozone to decipher the Check Engine CPU error codes and will post them in the coming days. Any advise with this would be apreciated greatly, as I'm a mechanical engineer on the unemployment line and looking to do it on the cheap.

Thanks!

 

Date of manufacture isn't the same as the model-year. You probably have a 1998, since they always begin building next-year's cars somewhere mid-summer.

Take back the filters, tell them it's a 1998. You're right about the fuel filter, but you shouldn't need that. There is no such thing as a "1997/1998". Unfortunately (for you) 98 is substantially different from 97.

Once you get some error codes, post them up. Give us the code numbers, not just the guy's verbal description.

 

Newbie here...

We just picked up an 01 accord v6 for our neice. Drove fine home and has 130k miles on it. The car sat for about a week and i went out today to take it to work and it now has a surging idle and when in drive it is sitting at 13-1400 rpm which is no good.

Just like the person above - when driving it, it drives fine - just wont idle correctly.

I have been looking around online and everything seems to be relevant to the previous model year accords. Is there anything specific i should be looking for? We are driving the car 500 miles next week to deliver it and i really want to have this resolved before then.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

John

 

I went out at lunch and pop'd the hood.... The car was surging and i unplugged the sensor on the top of the throttle body. The idle immediatly smoothed out, but also the Check engine light came on

I know all these sensors are tied togethor, so not sure if by unplugging the top sensor that the car went into some manual mode or something - or if this sensor is indeed the issue.

thoughts?

 

to get rid of the code, plug it back in and then disconect the battery wait a few minutes then re connect it and the code should go away if thats not the problem.

 

What you read about 98+ V-6 cars should apply pretty much the same for 98-02.

V-6 however is much different than 4-cyl.

#11 is the MAP sensor, I guess that's what you unplugged? That would send it into some kind of default operation.

#2 UNDERNEATH the throttle body is the IACV which might need cleaning.


Other things can cause surging idle.
- Vacuum leaks.
- Air pockets in the cooling system.
- Throttle cable too tight - it needs to have a bit of slack.

 

Thank you for the diagram - that really helps.

I stopped by Autozone and they of course told me about the MAP sensor which i unplugged but that the IACV was also throwing a code. They recommended i use some throttle body cleaner to see if that clears it up. if not, they have one in stock


Hoping i can just pull it off and clean it up a little and be done with it.

John

 

When you check the error codes, always get the actual code number.

Throttlebody cleaner should work OK to clean the IACV. Clean out the throttlebody itself too. The throttle cable must go slack & the throttle plate must close completely. If some misguided mechanic used the cable to adjust the idle RPM, that would be bad.

There's also coolant running through that IACV, too. See the hose nipples? Make sure there's no air pockets in the cooling system. The IACV will get all confused when air comes through.

See the needle valve #1 in that picture? That's for adjusting the idle speed, as follows.

Get the engine all warmed up completely. Turn off ALL electrical loads.

Unplug the wire from the IACV - this will make the engine almost stall. You might have to nurse the throttle to keep it running. Adjust the needle valve for about 550 rpm. (First, I hope someone can verify that 550 is the right number for a V-6)

Turn the car off, let it cool down, disconnect the battery to clear the ECU. Plug the wire back into the IACV.

Start the car without touching the gas pedal. Let it warm up completely without touching the gas pedal. This forces the ECU to re-learn the bahavior of the idle-control system.

 

Hi there. I have an 07 Accord that is the OHC 4 Cyl. and I have a similar idle problem as well. Mine idles at about 1500 rpm but if I tap the accelerator, it goes down to about 800 rpm. However, it will return to 1500 if I put it in gear, then back to neutral!!

I think the throttle cable is a bit tight but do any of you guys think it could be something else as well??

Thanks

 

So i took the whole TB off today and cleaned it up. Unbolted the IACV and cleaned that up also. The problem still exists.

I did disconnect the battery for a while and upon first startup, the car idled around 2k. When it finally came down, it started surging again.

I assume this means the IACV is not working correctly and needs to be replaced?