I have a 2001 Honda CR-V (210,000 miles) and I haven't figured what causes this to happen. I'll start it up and the rpm rises as usual but then fairly often the rpm will hover around 0 for a couple seconds or so and the engine seems like it might die (never has though) after this it'll idle normally. I've read on other forums about adjusting the valves but has anybody else had this problem and what is recommended to fix this/what might be the cause? I really appreciate any advice on this!

 

I'm going to go ahead and adjust the valves, I saw a couple of other forums and posts on how to do this, such as this one and this one. But does anybody have advice on adjusting them?

 

A few things could be going on.

When were the plugs changed? Are they gapped properly?
Check the PCV valve. They are dollars typically so get a new one. Takes all of a few minutes to swap it out, but be prepared to need a new hose for it as well as the old one may be brittle/hard.
Clean the throttle body with throttle body cleaner - pretty easy to do. Just follow the instructions for your year model (if the throttle is computer controlled, you don't want to be moving it while cleaning it as this can fubar it up).
Get MAF sensor cleaner and clean your MAF.

All of this takes maybe a half an hour to do and can make a huge improvement on the idle and operation. I'd be sure to toss in some Techron into the gas for a few tanks as well, and run good gas, not the cheap Sams club crap. See if all of that helps out, as it is easy and very inexpensive to do.