my rpm in my 01 civic would work erratically or on and off, if i was to take off from a stop it would take time for the rpm to jump to about the the right rpm but it would just jump to that rpm and not smoothly like it should. what could be the problem?

 

Sounds like you need to take it to a mechanic. The dealership should have one.

 

From the way you describe it it kinda sounds like when my throttle position sensor went bad but I'm not really sure... My mechanic checked it out for me.

 

pull your cluster out and clean the contact's..plug it back in and look at result's.
if that didn't help..take it to a dealer..unless you work on car's.. normally it's dirty contact's tho..