***How-To Clean*** Your IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve
03-09-2013, 05:38 AM
#376
Honda-Tech Member
Re: ***How-To Clean*** Your IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve
While spray cleaning the two holes on the IACV, is it possible to activate the valve by applying 12v on/off to the plug connector? anyone please advise.
03-09-2013, 05:44 AM
#377
Honda-Tech Member
Re: ***How-To Clean*** Your IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve
While spray cleaning the two holes on the IACV, is it possible to activate the valve by applying 12v on/off to the plug connector? anyone please advise.
03-09-2013, 07:42 AM
#378
Trial User
Re: ***How-To Clean*** Your IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve
The function of the IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve is to adjust the idle based upon the amount of air entering the engine, then the computer reacts to this information by adjusting the cars rpm.
Reasons why you should take it apart and clean it:
-High idle after your car warms up
-Lumpy idle
-Roaming idle
-Hunting idle
-Fluctuating idle
Tools Needed:
Ratchet
12mm Socket
Pliers
Brake Cleaner or Simple Green
Paper Towels
A cooled down engine for at least 2 hours
1) Now you got to locate where the IACV is, pop your hood and it’s located directly behind the intake manifold. It’s actually connected to it. Remove your intake and strut tower bar. (If applicable)
2) Place a couple of rags underneath to catch the coolant spill. Loosen the two hoses running to the IACV with your pliers by squeezing the two clips and moving them away from the end, circled in yellow. DO NOT cut the hoses as they are the exact length and you will have to buy new ones if you do.
3) After doing that remove the harness connected to the IACV on the driver side, circle in blue.
4) Then to finally remove it from the intake manifold, remove the two 12mm bolts, circled in red.
Now that the IACV is removed from the intake manifold make sure that you do not lose the rubber gasket as you need this so that it does not leak after you re-install the IACV.
5) Take your brake cleaner or simple green and start to clean up the inside of the IACV by spray inside the two holes. Continue to do this until no more dirty fluid comes out. Should take anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 minutes. This depending on how old and dirty your IACV is. The gasket can be seen in this picture as well.
6) Once you’re done cleaning out the IACV let it air dry. I let it air out for 20 minutes while I did other maintenance on the car.
Now your ready to re-install it back on the car so follow the steps backwards from 5 – 2
Good Luck
Reasons why you should take it apart and clean it:
-High idle after your car warms up
-Lumpy idle
-Roaming idle
-Hunting idle
-Fluctuating idle
Tools Needed:
Ratchet
12mm Socket
Pliers
Brake Cleaner or Simple Green
Paper Towels
A cooled down engine for at least 2 hours
1) Now you got to locate where the IACV is, pop your hood and it’s located directly behind the intake manifold. It’s actually connected to it. Remove your intake and strut tower bar. (If applicable)
2) Place a couple of rags underneath to catch the coolant spill. Loosen the two hoses running to the IACV with your pliers by squeezing the two clips and moving them away from the end, circled in yellow. DO NOT cut the hoses as they are the exact length and you will have to buy new ones if you do.
3) After doing that remove the harness connected to the IACV on the driver side, circle in blue.
4) Then to finally remove it from the intake manifold, remove the two 12mm bolts, circled in red.
Now that the IACV is removed from the intake manifold make sure that you do not lose the rubber gasket as you need this so that it does not leak after you re-install the IACV.
5) Take your brake cleaner or simple green and start to clean up the inside of the IACV by spray inside the two holes. Continue to do this until no more dirty fluid comes out. Should take anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 minutes. This depending on how old and dirty your IACV is. The gasket can be seen in this picture as well.
6) Once you’re done cleaning out the IACV let it air dry. I let it air out for 20 minutes while I did other maintenance on the car.
Now your ready to re-install it back on the car so follow the steps backwards from 5 – 2
Good Luck
03-10-2013, 12:29 PM
#379
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Re: ***How-To Clean*** Your IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve
Hi everyone!
So I need help. This is an issue regarding a erratic idle issue when in park and drive and reverse. My car is a 1990 Honda Accord LX AT. It starts up great in cold and hot conditions but it idles erratically in park and seems to get worse when I put it in reverse or drive.
Things I've fixed/tried:
New PCV valve
New OEM Fuel filter
New OEM Distributor cap & rotor
New OEM Spark plugs & wires
New Main fuel relay
And I cleaned the IACV
That all helped it start and stay running but when it's in park it has a kinda loping idle that doesn't show much in the tach you can just feel it. Then if I put the car in drive or reverse the feel of a shity idle gets worse and sometimes it dips down in RPMS so much it almost dies. So then I just give it gas and the car runs good when driving. I NEED ANY HELP OR IDEAS PLEASE!
Thank you
So I need help. This is an issue regarding a erratic idle issue when in park and drive and reverse. My car is a 1990 Honda Accord LX AT. It starts up great in cold and hot conditions but it idles erratically in park and seems to get worse when I put it in reverse or drive.
Things I've fixed/tried:
New PCV valve
New OEM Fuel filter
New OEM Distributor cap & rotor
New OEM Spark plugs & wires
New Main fuel relay
And I cleaned the IACV
That all helped it start and stay running but when it's in park it has a kinda loping idle that doesn't show much in the tach you can just feel it. Then if I put the car in drive or reverse the feel of a shity idle gets worse and sometimes it dips down in RPMS so much it almost dies. So then I just give it gas and the car runs good when driving. I NEED ANY HELP OR IDEAS PLEASE!
Thank you
03-22-2013, 02:33 AM
#380
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Re: (DeadEnd9009)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Jdm Blood »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I clean the IACV and the FITV...new TB gasket...yet it still idle rough. When the car is warmin up...its fine until I gas it alittle then it idle fast...1 to 2. What to do? Also when I unplug the plug to the FITV...it idle fine with the check engine light on.</TD></TR></TABLE>
open up the copper-colored plate on the back of the FITv located attached to tha throttle body. there is an off-white circular ring on there that unscrews loose over time. that is sometimes tha culprit of erratic idling.
also make sure your cooling system has no air in it. tha FITv opens/closes according to temperature of coolant. air can sometimes screw it up. this is sometimes the culprit of erratic idling.
you must mean you unplugged tha plug to tha IACv. tha FITv is controlled by coolant temperature. tha IACv is controlled in combination with FITv, idle adjusting screw, and ECM/ECU. but if you have proper idle to begin with, tha idle adjusting screw should not cause or affect any erratic idling problem. you can adjust idle between IACv and ECM. do tha following steps:
- warm engine to normal running temperature.
- check gauge and make sure upper radiator hose is warm/hot. fan should turn on.
- unplug tha IACv from ECM. just remove tha plug on tha IACv. idle should settle low and CEL will come on.
- adjust idle adjusting screw (on throttle body) anywhere from 400-600 (dependant on engine).
- turn engine off. remove key.
- plug IACv back.
- reset ECM. don't remove fuse, ECM will still hold CEL codes. you have to unplug battery.
also, make sure your FITv and IACv are workin' properly, and that you have a good PCV valve. tha TPS is rarely tha problem, unless you screwed around with it. and really make sure you have no vacuum leaks.
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DeadEnd9009 »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">do you need to bleed the cooling system after doing this?</TD></TR></TABLE>
i would. i mentioned why above. air pockets can also cause extra heat within your cooling system.
_taF
Modified by tallazzFilipino at 1:14 PM 7/13/2006
open up the copper-colored plate on the back of the FITv located attached to tha throttle body. there is an off-white circular ring on there that unscrews loose over time. that is sometimes tha culprit of erratic idling.
also make sure your cooling system has no air in it. tha FITv opens/closes according to temperature of coolant. air can sometimes screw it up. this is sometimes the culprit of erratic idling.
you must mean you unplugged tha plug to tha IACv. tha FITv is controlled by coolant temperature. tha IACv is controlled in combination with FITv, idle adjusting screw, and ECM/ECU. but if you have proper idle to begin with, tha idle adjusting screw should not cause or affect any erratic idling problem. you can adjust idle between IACv and ECM. do tha following steps:
- warm engine to normal running temperature.
- check gauge and make sure upper radiator hose is warm/hot. fan should turn on.
- unplug tha IACv from ECM. just remove tha plug on tha IACv. idle should settle low and CEL will come on.
- adjust idle adjusting screw (on throttle body) anywhere from 400-600 (dependant on engine).
- turn engine off. remove key.
- plug IACv back.
- reset ECM. don't remove fuse, ECM will still hold CEL codes. you have to unplug battery.
also, make sure your FITv and IACv are workin' properly, and that you have a good PCV valve. tha TPS is rarely tha problem, unless you screwed around with it. and really make sure you have no vacuum leaks.
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DeadEnd9009 »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">do you need to bleed the cooling system after doing this?</TD></TR></TABLE>
i would. i mentioned why above. air pockets can also cause extra heat within your cooling system.
_taF
Modified by tallazzFilipino at 1:14 PM 7/13/2006
04-05-2013, 09:46 AM
#382
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Re: ***How-To Clean*** Your IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve
Great post! I just cleaned mine out with brake cleaner. Sprayed in there a bit, a few times. Sprayed some in there and let it soak for a few. Then *important* and why I like brake cleaner for this. I stuck the red hose from the cleaner up in there and sprayed. Holy black gunk coming out everywhere!
Now,...on to the FITV.
Now,...on to the FITV.
04-10-2013, 05:53 PM
#383
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Re: ***How-To Clean*** Your IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve
The function of the IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve is to adjust the idle based upon the amount of air entering the engine, then the computer reacts to this information by adjusting the cars rpm.
Reasons why you should take it apart and clean it:
-High idle after your car warms up
-Lumpy idle
-Roaming idle
-Hunting idle
-Fluctuating idle
Tools Needed:
Ratchet
12mm Socket
Pliers
Brake Cleaner or Simple Green
Paper Towels
A cooled down engine for at least 2 hours
1) Now you got to locate where the IACV is, pop your hood and it’s located directly behind the intake manifold. It’s actually connected to it. Remove your intake and strut tower bar. (If applicable)
2) Place a couple of rags underneath to catch the coolant spill. Loosen the two hoses running to the IACV with your pliers by squeezing the two clips and moving them away from the end, circled in yellow. DO NOT cut the hoses as they are the exact length and you will have to buy new ones if you do.
3) After doing that remove the harness connected to the IACV on the driver side, circle in blue.
4) Then to finally remove it from the intake manifold, remove the two 12mm bolts, circled in red.
Now that the IACV is removed from the intake manifold make sure that you do not lose the rubber gasket as you need this so that it does not leak after you re-install the IACV.
5) Take your brake cleaner or simple green and start to clean up the inside of the IACV by spray inside the two holes. Continue to do this until no more dirty fluid comes out. Should take anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 minutes. This depending on how old and dirty your IACV is. The gasket can be seen in this picture as well.
6) Once you’re done cleaning out the IACV let it air dry. I let it air out for 20 minutes while I did other maintenance on the car.
Now your ready to re-install it back on the car so follow the steps backwards from 5 – 2
Good Luck
Reasons why you should take it apart and clean it:
-High idle after your car warms up
-Lumpy idle
-Roaming idle
-Hunting idle
-Fluctuating idle
Tools Needed:
Ratchet
12mm Socket
Pliers
Brake Cleaner or Simple Green
Paper Towels
A cooled down engine for at least 2 hours
1) Now you got to locate where the IACV is, pop your hood and it’s located directly behind the intake manifold. It’s actually connected to it. Remove your intake and strut tower bar. (If applicable)
2) Place a couple of rags underneath to catch the coolant spill. Loosen the two hoses running to the IACV with your pliers by squeezing the two clips and moving them away from the end, circled in yellow. DO NOT cut the hoses as they are the exact length and you will have to buy new ones if you do.
3) After doing that remove the harness connected to the IACV on the driver side, circle in blue.
4) Then to finally remove it from the intake manifold, remove the two 12mm bolts, circled in red.
Now that the IACV is removed from the intake manifold make sure that you do not lose the rubber gasket as you need this so that it does not leak after you re-install the IACV.
5) Take your brake cleaner or simple green and start to clean up the inside of the IACV by spray inside the two holes. Continue to do this until no more dirty fluid comes out. Should take anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 minutes. This depending on how old and dirty your IACV is. The gasket can be seen in this picture as well.
6) Once you’re done cleaning out the IACV let it air dry. I let it air out for 20 minutes while I did other maintenance on the car.
Now your ready to re-install it back on the car so follow the steps backwards from 5 – 2
Good Luck
05-21-2013, 03:35 PM
#384
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Re: ***How-To Clean*** Your IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve
Awesome stuff in this thread. My issue seems to be a little different than others. When I start my car in the winter time, in extreme cold, it idles at about 2800 rpms for about 20 seconds. Then it starts idling up and down in between 2000 to 2500 for about a minute and a half. Once the car warms up it stops completely, and occassionally you will see a slight movement when sitting at a light. something between like 500 to 650 rpms. Is this the same thing, or possibly something different?
05-31-2013, 07:31 PM
#386
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Re: ***How-To Clean*** Your IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve
wildoutwhitegsr, Thank You much for this write up 
it's still helping people after all this time and me. 
A tip that may help some of you; is to REVERSE the order of steps #2, #3, and #4,. This made it a lot easier to remove the harness (plug) connected to the IACV, and loosen the clips, and pull the hoses, and (after cleaning the IACV) to get them back onto the IACV before you bolt the IACV back onto the intake manifold. Just my two cents.
Also if you need to replace the GASKET (it looks like the number 8) you can get it from a Honda Dealer, Part #36455-PT3-A01. It cost me $4.64 + Tax
$5.06
I hope this helps.
it's still helping people after all this time and me. A tip that may help some of you; is to REVERSE the order of steps #2, #3, and #4,. This made it a lot easier to remove the harness (plug) connected to the IACV, and loosen the clips, and pull the hoses, and (after cleaning the IACV) to get them back onto the IACV before you bolt the IACV back onto the intake manifold. Just my two cents.
Also if you need to replace the GASKET (it looks like the number 8) you can get it from a Honda Dealer, Part #36455-PT3-A01. It cost me $4.64 + Tax
$5.06
I hope this helps.
06-12-2013, 08:55 AM
#387
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Re: ***How-To Clean*** Your IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve
I actually bookmarked this post and shared it with some of my buddies. Extremely detailed and the pictures really help you out. Good write up.
06-18-2013, 07:43 AM
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Re: ***How-To Clean*** Your IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve
Daughter has '02 Honda Civic. Drives 30+ miles to work one way each day. Two weeks ago the check engine light came on and vehicle began lurching and shaking for at least 15 miles. She said she was afraid the front wheels were going to come off. Then it began driving better, and she could go speed limit. I had her stop at our house, and I drove her the rest of the way into work. I took the car to Auto Zone to have code read, and it said it was a problem with the IACV. Most annoying, the car drove fine for me. It has continued to drive fine 80% of the time, but acted up again for her this morning. Does this sound like an IACV issue? She said yesterday that when idling, the rpms hang close to 1. Also, when she bought the car the transmission seemed to be a bit rough when shifting (automatic). Could this be the issue?
Thanks for any help!
Thanks for any help!
07-21-2013, 01:28 PM
#389
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Re: ***How-To Clean*** Your IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve
I wanted to say a massive thanks to the OP! Great write up and an easy job to perform. Thanks!
As a reply to birchtrees10, you may have an IACV problem, but I don't think it's responsible for the symptoms you described. As far as I'm aware, the IACV only regulates the rpms at idle, hence the name, "IDLE air control valve". My thoughts are that you have an additional issue causing the jerking.
As a reply to birchtrees10, you may have an IACV problem, but I don't think it's responsible for the symptoms you described. As far as I'm aware, the IACV only regulates the rpms at idle, hence the name, "IDLE air control valve". My thoughts are that you have an additional issue causing the jerking.
08-10-2013, 02:56 PM
#390
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Re: ***How-To Clean*** Your IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve
My idle still roam after cleaning and replaced with a different working one. What else can I do to make It stop? Only does it when its really hot out. Idle up and down up and down. 96 gsr 200k on the motor.
11-17-2013, 11:51 AM
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Re: ***How-To Clean*** Your IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve
just came out of my da9, had a stumbling idle sometimes would stall when still and i am turning the wheel. i know i have a oil leak in the distributor so that could play a major part in the idle problem but my new distributor dont come in till next week so i decided to work on the iacv today and i have to say ur info was very helpful. only problem for me was taking of those goddamn!! hosessss. the **** was like welded in there so i left em on and clean them while the coolant hoses were connected want to know what u would think about that procedure and also when i installed it back it started up but idle was very low (once again distributor is faulty) so i played with the throttle linkage to hold it above 650-750 and i got to say the rpm stays within that range and it doesnt flactuate up and down like it used to guess i sprayed enough to clean it
11-17-2013, 07:50 PM
#393
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Re: ***How-To Clean*** Your IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve
Thanks OP. This is a good thing to clean every year or so. As well as the Throttle body. Holy cow was mine ever dirty! Helped greatly with throttle response.
12-06-2013, 03:39 PM
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Re: ***How-To Clean*** Your IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve
Hey everyone, looks like a really awesome guide + community here.
Id really love some assistance in locating my IACV if possible.
I have a Automatic 2002 Honda Civic Ferio (1500cc vtech), with 140,000km, having trouble finding much on this model, seems to be quite rare, last time I had a full service I asked the mechanic to clean the IACV and he had no idea what I was talking about, tried to explain, and he still didn't know : /
I think this is the model: http://www.cars-directory.net/specs/...2002_10/12460/
Basically my car has lumpy/fluctuating idle, once it warms up it should sit at about 750rpm, however it normally sits at 650-700, and sometimes drops to 600. When its at 600 and the light goes green for example, you put your foot down and its like "stuck in neutral almost", revs go up to say, 1000-1500, then it finally engages gear, and lurches a bit. This only ever happens trying to take off from 600 or so RPM.
Also if I need to break hard, afterward the car drops way down to like 500rpm, shudders, then recovers to say 900, then drops to 550, shudders, and recovers to 850... does a few cycles of this until its around 650-700 again.
Hope this is making sense!
Ive attached a picture of my engine, which is a D15B Vtech, as I havnt seen one similar yet. Can anyone help point out my IACV?
https://i.imgur.com/9AJvlIW.jpg
The red circle is where is says "D15B"
The yellow circle is the air filter
The green circle is a compartment with about 8 screws, I have opened it thinking maybe the IACV was inside it (probably silly me), but its another filter that's about 15cm x 15 cm square on the left hand side of the compartment, with the right hand side being slightly triangular shape and empty.
I can't for the life of me find something that looks like the IACV in the OP. Is someone able to edit my picture and point where to look, and perhaps even point me to some existing instructions related to my model of engine?
Thanks!
Edit: only had the car 1 year, so limited paper work on whats been done recently.
-Replaced oxygen sensor
-Full (the works) service
-Replaced transmission fluid
Id really love some assistance in locating my IACV if possible.
I have a Automatic 2002 Honda Civic Ferio (1500cc vtech), with 140,000km, having trouble finding much on this model, seems to be quite rare, last time I had a full service I asked the mechanic to clean the IACV and he had no idea what I was talking about, tried to explain, and he still didn't know : /
I think this is the model: http://www.cars-directory.net/specs/...2002_10/12460/
Basically my car has lumpy/fluctuating idle, once it warms up it should sit at about 750rpm, however it normally sits at 650-700, and sometimes drops to 600. When its at 600 and the light goes green for example, you put your foot down and its like "stuck in neutral almost", revs go up to say, 1000-1500, then it finally engages gear, and lurches a bit. This only ever happens trying to take off from 600 or so RPM.
Also if I need to break hard, afterward the car drops way down to like 500rpm, shudders, then recovers to say 900, then drops to 550, shudders, and recovers to 850... does a few cycles of this until its around 650-700 again.
Hope this is making sense!
Ive attached a picture of my engine, which is a D15B Vtech, as I havnt seen one similar yet. Can anyone help point out my IACV?
https://i.imgur.com/9AJvlIW.jpg
The red circle is where is says "D15B"
The yellow circle is the air filter
The green circle is a compartment with about 8 screws, I have opened it thinking maybe the IACV was inside it (probably silly me), but its another filter that's about 15cm x 15 cm square on the left hand side of the compartment, with the right hand side being slightly triangular shape and empty.
I can't for the life of me find something that looks like the IACV in the OP. Is someone able to edit my picture and point where to look, and perhaps even point me to some existing instructions related to my model of engine?
Thanks!
Edit: only had the car 1 year, so limited paper work on whats been done recently.
-Replaced oxygen sensor
-Full (the works) service
-Replaced transmission fluid
01-29-2014, 05:35 PM
#397
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Re: ***How-To Clean*** Your IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve
Wondering if I should replace the coolant hoses as well? I hate to spend 250.00 and it not work!! Please help it's to the point that I can't drive it!
03-02-2014, 12:54 PM
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Re: ***How-To Clean*** Your IACV a.k.a. Idle Air Control Valve
I just finished cleaning the Idle Control Valve on my daughters 2000 CRV and now it won't idle at all. What could I have done wrong. Maybe it needs a new seal?
what to do