Honda Accord (1990 - 2002) Includes 1997 - 1999 Acura CL

91 Accord LX MT: Throttle body sprayed gone bad

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Old Feb 7, 2019 | 07:40 PM
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Default 91 Accord LX MT: Throttle body sprayed gone bad

Throttle body was never cleaned...ever, but six weeks ago I decided to go to town spraying the throttle body with it still on the car. I used like 75% of the can that day and a good amount of the cleaner disappeared into the throttle body. Car sat for about a month after that and just over a week ago I tried starting the car (the car was last driven on Dec 5th 2018). It took many many tries spanning a few days for the car to finally start and very rough idle initially and lots of whitish smoke out the tailpipe. After engine at temp the coolant cap vented several times. I called it a day after that. Next day, I started the car again and things went better, whitish smoke much less and at times none at all and it was idling well and I tried to check the timing with a timing light but I could not see any of the marks via the flywheel window. This baffled me, but now I know why: I forgot to jumper the connector under the passenger dash. I'm not sure what that does but must be important somehow. Anyways, like I was saying, that day I tried to check the timing with the light but could not se the marks at all so I said heck with it and still went ahead to take the car for a spin around the neighborhood. But just before I departed, the coolant cap vented for about 20 sec small amounts of coolant. I watched the cap some more and things looked good so I got confident and went ahead with driving the car. The idle was good right about 800 rpm, consistently, before I started driving, but soon after driving anytime I had my foot off the gas the rpm would pulse very very quickly between 1100 and 1600 rpm! I kept driving anyways for a few minutes. On my way back I let the car coast down my driveway (idle still doing the 1100 to 1600 pulse) then all the sudden the car shuts off completely. That was 2 days ago and I haven't been able to start her up since. The car cranks and power windows & locks work but the crank only spins when the starter does.

Now, trying to figure out what happened and what needs fixed. Anyone have any ideas?
Somehow, I want to blame the throttle body cleaning for all this. In retrospect, I would not have done it because in reality it wasn't necessary.

I tried to check for any OBD1 code(s) but the engine light just stayed on steady, so no help from that. To check for codes I did short the same pins that need to be shorted to do timing light check cause I could not find any other pins to short for code reading.

Last edited by Davesmit; Feb 7, 2019 at 08:22 PM.
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Old Feb 8, 2019 | 11:20 AM
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Default Re: 91 Accord LX MT: Throttle body sprayed gone bad

So with a no stat issue the next step is to verify whether or not you have sufficient air, spark and fuel at the combustion chamber.

Your previous surging idle issues sound like a vacuum leak or a malfunction in the intake air bypass (IAB) or fast idle thermal (FIT) valves. Cleaning the throttle body if it is dirty is never a bad thing. With that being said, there are a lot of other components that may also need cleaning now as well. IAB, FIT, EGR ports and intake manifold.
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Old Feb 10, 2019 | 02:54 PM
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Default Re: 91 Accord LX MT: Throttle body sprayed gone bad

Yeah, it sounds like you have a vapor lock of some kind in the intake. When you got it started that other time, perhaps you should have driven it around and blown it out. Your choice, but you could crank it a bit with gas pedal held to the floor to see if it ignites. If it does, blown the bad stuff on out before shutting it off. Just curious, what product did you spray, and before you sprayed it, would the car start up and let you drive it around.
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Old Feb 10, 2019 | 06:58 PM
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Default Re: 91 Accord LX MT: Throttle body sprayed gone bad

Originally Posted by GhostAccord
So with a no stat issue the next step is to verify whether or not you have sufficient air, spark and fuel at the combustion chamber.

Your previous surging idle issues sound like a vacuum leak or a malfunction in the intake air bypass (IAB) or fast idle thermal (FIT) valves. Cleaning the throttle body if it is dirty is never a bad thing. With that being said, there are a lot of other components that may also need cleaning now as well. IAB, FIT, EGR ports and intake manifold.
So I did a spark test by sticking a screwdriver into one of the spark plug boots and nearing it very close but not quite touching the valve cover (made of aluminum and grounded) while the engine cranked. And...no spark was witnessed. Then I loosed the distributor cover and checked to see if there was a spark from the ignition coil. Here again no spark, except at times there was a weak orangish color spark, but seemed very weak. Next day or so, I bought a CARQUEST distributor from Advanced Auto Parts which ran ~140 bucks. I swapped the distributor with the new one and Walla!...The car started right up! Thinking back, it seems the ignition coil was sporadically failing and getting worse in a short period of time until it failed completely with no spark/weak spark. That helps explains why my timing light showed random and noticeable "flicker voids" at times. Having said that, it does not explain the previous "crazy" fast pulsing 1100-1600 rpm idle once the engine has warmed up to operating temperature.

Like Ghost said, the high pulsing idle problem is probably something along vacuum leak/IAB,FITV,EGR issue(s)

I'll have to tackle does things in the next few days. Wish me luck! I want my dear 91Honda to run "like new" again and especially not to inconvenience others by borrowing their cars to get to work!
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