I had the following replaced:
Timming Belt
Water pump
Balencer belt
Auto tensioner

I picked up the car and it starts just fine. Sometimes it will start and immediatly have a low idle and it won't recover from it. Other times the car starts and it shoots right up to normal idle(1500 RPM).

When I drive the car there is a VERY slight vibration and the car sounds slightly different above 6K. When I push the clutch in anywhere above 6K the clutch pedal feels like there is less engagement then before the work was done.

Now as soon as I start driving the car I can not let it sit in neutral because it will stall. After awhile of driving (and sometimes this doesn't happen) when I put it in neutral the idle will bounce real low (close to 500 RPM) and then jump back up to normal (700 +/- 50 RPM).

I asked the mechanic who did the work and he said that it is common for the ECU to go through a "re-learning phase" that can take up to 2 days before the idle goes back to normal. I have put over 300 miles on since the work was done and it still does this. Any suggestions? I really need help with this one.

Thanks guys!

 

Sounds more like he didn't get the timing quite right

 

I've been able to drive the lude a little bit more and I figured out a couple of things.
First the engine idels perfectly until it is warm.
seccondly I managed to get it to not stall and it was reving almost (not quite) like there was a vacuum leak, from like 530 RPM to 850RPM. I left the car run like this for a little bit and the car's idle went back to normal. Once I drove it afterwards it wanted to stall again.

I don't think it is the timming, but I am going to double check it... in order to check the timming I need to hook up a jumper on the CEL plug and then take a timming light to the open hole where the flywheel and clutch can be seen. After this I just turn the distributor until I see the mark line up between the two points, right? How far can I safely advance the timming to gain a couple of extra ponies?

Again I would really appreciate any help or insight, even simple comments like the guy above. This is really driving my nuts!

 

I too just replaced the timing belt and tensioner/pulley in my h22a1.

Now the car starts fine, but will idle very low and sometimes die out.
I can drive the car to 60mph, brake and downshift to a stop, and the car will idle and die out 8 times out of 10. If it doesn't die out, it will idle down very low, catch itself, and continue to idle at abour 800rpm. It used to idle around 1200.

No other problems other than this one. Sounds like a timing issue to me almost....but the car runs fine other than the idle. Don't understand how the idle could have been adjusted during the t-belt replacement. Spark plugs all check out, but even if it wasn't getting the right spark in all four cylinders, it wouldn't run smoothly.

 

big vac leak or vac lines plugged into the wrong locations would be my guess. there is no damn ECU re-learning phase. Its either right or wrong. Very simple.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mattmw88 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
I don't think it is the timming, but I am going to double check it... in order to check the timming I need to hook up a jumper on the CEL plug and then take a timming light to the open hole where the flywheel and clutch can be seen. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Well, that's how you check the ignition timing, but you also need to check the cam timing...it's just as important. You have to line the marks on the cam gears up with the white plus sign on the flywheel.

I would also do a valve adjustment and tell that mechanic he's an idiot.

 

Maybe Im an idiot..........

i didnt see a flywheel on the driver side of the motor when I did my timing belt replacement and crap. And my car seems to be out of time as well.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Zrothum &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Maybe Im an idiot..........

i didnt see a flywheel on the driver side of the motor when I did my timing belt replacement and crap. And my car seems to be out of time as well.</TD></TR></TABLE>

The flywheel is on the passenger side of the engine. There's a little rubber plug you pull out to see the timing marks on it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Hawkze_2.3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Well, that's how you check the ignition timing, but you also need to check the cam timing...it's just as important. You have to line the marks on the cam gears up with the white plus sign on the flywheel.

I would also do a valve adjustment and tell that mechanic he's an idiot. </TD></TR></TABLE>

So I pull the valve cover off and look for the two arrows on the cams, after that I am lost. How do I adjust the cams? Do I have to take the timming belt off? And what are you talking about as far as the white plus sign on the flywheel?
Care to take a stab at how I should adjust the valves?

I know for a fact it's not a vacuum leak, but I will recheck all the lines. The "mechanic" told me to take a can of carb cleaner and take off my intake and spray 3/4 of it all in there, along with checking the air idle screw. What a freakin mess, I paid the dude 500 os I didn't have to deal with this crap. I should have just done this myself with a friend. I guess I have learned to never put off matainence !

 

Step 1. get a helms

read through that and it will answer most of your questions... hell it's a step by step how to

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mattmw88 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

So I pull the valve cover off and look for the two arrows on the cams, after that I am lost. How do I adjust the cams? Do I have to take the timming belt off? And what are you talking about as far as the white plus sign on the flywheel?
Care to take a stab at how I should adjust the valves?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, in all honesty it would be next to impossible to tell you how to do all these things correctly over the interweb. Buy a helms manual from http://www.helminc.com and it will walk you through everything in great detail.

 

the book I had just said to set it all at TDC...never told me about the flywheel lol. I set the cam marks to face each other and bolted everything up

And for the guy who asked....you have to turn the crank by hand, to line the cam gears up.