Just bought a 95 accord with 5 speed transmission. When the a/c is on the car struggles and the ride is rougher, seems to sputter especially at lower speeds. When idling it often dies. I thought maybe it was overcharged since the owners just charged it and reported no problems dying before (yes, I believe them).

But, the air is really cold so I guess it's probably not overcharged? Any ideas on what it could be?

 

Try cleaning out the iacv. There's a sticky for it in the FAQ.

 

mine does the same thing. a/c is always hard on 4 cylinders. my idle was really low when i bought it. i turned it up a bit and it helped some.

 

My does too but I think its cause from loss of compression for my case

 

Could the IACV really be an issue? The idle doesn't seem to "hunt" when the a/c is off. I don't think the idle is too low, when the a/c is off it's about 1k.

The biggest issue is trying to go from a stop in first gear. It really struggles badly and sometimes dies. Once it gets past about 2k - 3k rpm it does fine. It really causes some erratic looking driving and scares me for things like having to pull out in front of cars, left turns, etc. It's dangerous!

This seems to be an issue even when the a/c is off but it's a lot worse when it's on. Any idea what that could be? Or is this normal?

 

Check Alternator..

 

What do you mean?

 

First you said the car almost dies, now you're saying the rpm's run around 1k ? You need to be clear if you're going to get quality advice.

Normally when the ac is on the iacv has to raise the idle slightly to compensate for the added stress whether electrical or mechanical stress. If the iacv is dirty it may or may not be able to raise the idle either enough or accurately.

 

Sorry about that. It's 1k when the a/c is off. When the a/c is on it's less than that and sputters and often dies. It usually doesn't die just sitting there, it's either when I come to a stop and go into idle or when I try to take off. When I try to take off it sputters really bad and the rpm doesn't go up smoothly. Sometimes it dies. Does that make any sense?

I know the iacv causes the idle to jump up, but I've never had it jump up only drop down.

 

I would check the alternator like the above poster said. Most auto stores check them for free. When you have your ac and lights on do your lights start to dim a bit ? Turn them both on then roll up the windows and turn on the dome light. Then try to reroll the window up with it already up and see how bad the light dims. If it's really bad it could be the alternator.

 

Also, your rpm's should be around 650 to 700 at idle.

 

Thanks for the advice. I don't have power windows though. Is there something I could do instead to check it? Plug in a gps or something?

 

Okay, I had the alternator checked and it was fine.

Drove it a bunch today and have a clearer picture of the problem. It idles about 500 which is too low, I guess that needs to be tightened?

It dies all the time now, usually when I let up on the accelerator for red lights and such. It doesn't die right away, it dies once the RPM goes down to around idling speed but just keeps going down to 0. When starting off after a stop it struggles until I get to about 3k then it takes off.

It sounds really loud, like there's no muffler on it or something. I thought maybe a previous owner put something on the muffler to make it sound like that, but I don't remember it sounding like that yesterday morning when I bought it. Seems like I would have remembered that.

When driving there's a sort of rattling sound that gets worse when the a/c is on. And there's an overall sort of rough ride, not very smooth at all unless I'm accelerating pretty rapidly. It feels like the car is about to fall apart. Not good!

 

Get the idle up a bit for starters. Then, it's hard to say with out seeing it but a couple of things come to mind. 1. You have a vacume leak and your not getting any advance on ignition. 2. Your EGR valve or ports are clogged.

 

I hope that's the only problem! Thanks! If I got sold a totaled car I'm going to cry. I don't know much at all about cars and I used most of the money in my bank account to get it because we desperately need a car.

 

First thing's first, don't mess with the idle until you've cleaned out the iacv. Unless someone previously messed with it, it should never need to be adjusted.

https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-accord-1990-2002-2/cleaning-iacv-fitv-tb-1844067/

After that you can clean out the egr ports, which are very easy for your car.

http://www.freewebs.com/hondadude/95...5AccordEGR.htm

 

well good thing winter is comng up. plenty of time to fix it...

 

Thanks! I'll give that a shot once the mechanic looks it over (just to make sure nothing is seriously wrong)

 

Before cleaning out the iacv, I would suggest buying a new gasket for it to put on when you're done cleaning it out.