boostedteg909

ok. in reference to the OP

alright. a flashin cel tells me its most likely not ur fuel system. check the entire ignition system. u said u change plug wires nd said u were gonna change cap, rotor, coil nd plugs. nutin like a good old fashioned shotgun diagnosis. we dnt hav updates tho so we dnt kno how that worked out for u. if u still hav the misfires nd the comp check is fine, check for a clogged cat. updates r greatly needed tho

T_ypEr

I never thought about electrical before. I'll give it a shot when I get a chance. There should be a bunch of updates before your first post.

fast2camciv

so wait, its smoking and surging now? its sounding like a headgasket. or cracked head...or something allowing coolant into the cylinders (just thinking out loud here) i would get a hold of a headgasket tester (goes on radiator cap) and check for exhaust gas in the coolant. nothing involved with the iacv will allow coolant into the engine (only way your going to get white smoke)

although the fitv (valve under the throttle body with 2 coolant lines going to it) could be cracked allowing coolant to get into the intake manifold...and could also be a source of the vacuum leak.

look over the FITV, open it up and clean/adjust it. then if that doesnt fix it, check the headgasket. thats my opinion anyways....

T_ypEr

I have the solution! I took my car to a Honda specialist today and he just called me and told me what it was: whoever last messed with my throttle body had the idle adjusted all the way up. The mechanic that cleaned out my TB probably had a vacuum leak with the gasket and compensated for it with the idle adjustment. So when I get a better gasket on there, the IACV is bypassed, the ECU compensates by turning off the injectors, and then the whole thing goes back and forth and the idle starts surging. As far as the smoking, I haven't noticed it at all anymore today. I highly doubt the head gasket is bad because this car has never overheated and there's not coolant smell from the exhaust. I have also looked at the FITV and it looked clean as a whistle so I didn't bother messing with it. Thanks for all your input guys, I really appreciate it! I'm glad to say that I'm a better "home mechanic" because of it.

decode33

A mechanic I showed it too did the same thing. I had a broken engine mount and the engine was shaking. The stupid mechanic raised the idle speed to full without telling me thinking it will fix it. I ran arond town trying to find the problem. I found an expert mechanic and he solved it in minutes. Most mechanics do not have any training.

Dannysgirl

Mine is misfiring on all cylinders. When I put it in park the idle is way up and then down in 2 second intervals. And mine is definitely over heating. Will adjusting the valves fix this? Or did I jump time?

NukeNinja

Misfires are difficult to diagnose. If it is happening in all cylinders, it is probably not a cylinder-specific thing like a plug or a wire or a fuel injector.

I believe the overheating and misfire combination is a tell tale sign of a blown head gasket. Look for oil in the coolant. Look for coolant in the oil. Check the exhaust for white or blue smoke. Check the compression. If two or more adjacent cylinders lack compression, then it is most likely a blown head gasket, which will need to be promptly replaced.

chidog

How stupid of Honda to put adjustment screws on something that won't do sh__. What were they thinking?

ThisIsMatt

The main reason you'd put adjustment screws on something that you (the user) isn't supposed to adjust is for plant assembly purposes. If you have parts that are supposed to assemble and result in thousandths-of-an-inch tolerances, it becomes both very difficult and very expensive to make those parts so they fit together so precisely. Instead, you control your tolerances where you reasonably can, and then allow a fine-tuning adjustment to dial in the final level of precision.

starchland

It was sarcasm I do believe.

one of the first things you do on an old misfiring Honda is to check and make sure all the valves are closing when they are supposed to. Checking the valve lash is also free and just good maintenance form. When a valve burns you will have a headache. The heating/cooling cycle is what causes the lash to tighten up.

ThisIsMatt

Ahh, good read. I missed it.