Hey guys,

I did a lot of research before starting this project, so please read in full w/out judgement.

I have had a stalling problem that started recently as I pull up to lights and engage the clutch, rpms would drop and the car would stall or come very close to it. I replaced the IAT because it was throwing a code, and that problem slowed down a lot.

I then decided to clean my egr which was filthy. After I cleaned it and reinstalled, the problem was almost fixed (I would say 85%. I figured while I am working on this issue, I may as well clean the IAC and call it a day. Removed and cleaned it no problem, reinstalled and started the lude up.

The idle was smooth and perfect with no shaking at 750-800ish before I removed and cleaned the IAC. After, the rpms were down to 500-600 and very rough idle, prone to stall very often. I reset the ecu and figured maybe it needs to realign, or relearn but it did not seem to help.

My first guess was I should have left the iac off to air dry 20 min or so instead of instantly reinstalling. I checked all the lines multiple times to see if I caused a vacuum leak somewhere by mistake and nothing. I did some more research and decided a gasket may be the answer (it did not have one on when I removed it but it was mentioned to replace before reinstalled on the forums).

Couldn't find the gasket so as brilliant as I am, I decided to get some gasket maker. Basically the gasket maker gunked up the entire iac and screen causing more harm than the original carbon before cleaning. I did my best to clean it out and made a tear in the screen by accident.

I am now waiting for it to dry and will be reinstalling it to see what happens. I am selling my car and I wanted it to be right for the person who buys it so he/she doesn't have to deal with any small issues. Any help would greatly be appreciated.

 

update: No change after letting it dry 30 min.

I loosened the bolts on the iac a little to create a purposeful vacuum;air leek and viola, perfect idle.

Test drove it and everything was great, perfect idle, no stall out, small rpm drop when engaging clutch towards a light like it used to be.

I have no idea why this worked being that it had no gasket before i cleaned it. I will now be ordering the gasket for it, should that work? If not I will put a washer in between the iac to keep that vacuum leak permanent.

Any thoughts or drawbacks to this? Did not seem to effect power or drivability at all.

 

Did you remember to plug in the IAC after taking it off?

 

yes, I plugged it back in, I double checked everything. I kept looking for the idle adjust screw, but I could not find it anywhere on the throttle body. Then I heard someone mention there is no idle adjust because the ecu does it automatically

 

What year is the car?

 

Have you bypassed the coolant lines for the IACV? if not, you probably have a little air in the cooling system from the removal and replacement of the IACV. Try bleeding the system and see what happens. How's the FITV working?

 

Its a 2000. I guessed the same thing about the air in the coolant, I didn't have anything to dump the coolant into, but I will do that next. I did not do the bypass, but I bet the coolant issue is the key. Does the 5th gen have an FITV? If so, the fast idle works great regardless.

Thanks

 

Yes it does, all the H motors do if Im not mistaken. Hopefully the bleed does it because I have no other ideas after that lol

 

Problem solved. Before buying a new one, I thought about it for a second. If the car runs fine when you initiate the air leak right at the iac, then the iac is blocking the air completely. I took off the iac to pull it apart and see if there was anything I could do. Upon looking at the screen in better lighting I saw how the gasket seal goop was still there and clogging the entire unit.

The gunk actually slipped past the screen and you couldn't see the entire hole was plugged. I just took a screw driver and removed everything, screen and all.

I put it back together an viola, running/idling better than ever. No stalling approaching lights/depressing the clutch. I was just about to try the coolant and then order a new iac.

I do have one question however, what does the screen on the IAC do? What is it filtering and is it a big deal to have this screen removed.

Thanks again

 

The screen is there to capture all the carbon build-up and debris if I'm not mistaken.