Hello everyone,

I am raising this new thread to explain the issues I am facing with my ITR.

I recently had to pass my country's emissions test and the car failed it, due to high CO (no detailed numbers were provided) as well as some lambda deviation (am translating it from French, might not be the perfect translation).
Moreover, since 3 weeks I have noticed a rough idle when the engine is warm (no issue when cold). Everything runs smoothly when driving normally but when stopping the idle will go abnormally low (sometimes close to 0 rpm and the battery light might come on, in some cases it will even stall).
The issue is quite irregular and hard to reproduce but I've noticed that when the car is in this idling state if I quickly tap the accelerator the rpm will go even lower (for like 0.5 seconds) before revving as expected.

I have access to another Integra (that passed emissions recently) from which I can switch parts in order to identify what can be wrong . So far I have swapped the O2 sensor (called lambda sensor here) but it didn't fix anything and the other Integra runs fine with the O2 sensor that was on mine.

I will try to swap IACVs and see it it changes anything.

Meanwhile maybe someone could give an opinion on what it might be? Maybe you had a similar case.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Kind regards.

 

Has the injectors ever been cleaned/ serviced?

Mine was a bit rough at idle but went away after having it cleaned by RC Injection last year.

When was last time the spark plugs, wires and distributor cap and rotors were changed?

 

Hi Yoshi234,

I bought the car not a long time ago (and it passed emissions one year ago) and as far as I'm aware injectors have never been cleaned/ serviced (nor was I aware that it is supposed to be part of a "regular" maintenance).

I talked to a Honda dealership nearby that suggested changing the O2 sensor (which I did without triggering any improvement) and suggested to do a valves adjustment that will be done in the dealership in 2 weeks. Do you think that valves could cause these issues (failed emissions and idle problem)?

Spark plugs were replaced roughly 1 year ago but wires and distributor cap / rotors were most likely never changed either (the car "only" has 82.000 km). But I can swap the wires / distributor cap (with another Integra I have access to) during the upcoming week-end to check if it fixes the issue. For the rotor as I'm not a specialist I'm afraid to mess something up with its installation, does it require a specific position or something? If it's straightforward I can swap it too.

Thanks for the advice!

 

Hi,

I bought the car not that long ago so I have no idea if the injectors have ever been cleaned / serviced. The car only has 82 000 km, would that be necessary as a "regular" maintenance?

Spark plus are recent (less than 1 year) but the wires and distributor cap / rotors have most likely never been changed. I can easily swap the distributor cap (as I said I have access to another ITR) but I have no idea how to change rotors (am afraid to mess it up).

I will take the car to the dealership in one week to do the valves adjustment based on their recommendation. Could that be causing the issue?

Thanks for your help!

 

cap and rotor are very straight forward to replace

 

Yea the rotor is just this little plastic piece you put in when distributor cap is off. I don't know how it works, but I can pop it on and off with ease.

 

Thanks for the answers and suggestions, I'll keep you updated!

 

I suggest a full tune up as well as oil change, air filter change and if your willing getting the injectors flow tested and cleaned wont hurt.

Sounds like a bad IACV or dirty IACV, swap the IACV and clean it with brake cleaner and let it dry before installing, change the gasket before the install, these gaskets flatten out fast from heat and stop sealing as good.
And if your issues still are there try testing/ replacing the ECT sensor, its possible the sensor is going bad giving the ECU the wrong voltage and causing the low idle and rough performance when the engine is warmed up to operating temp (180)
If your still having issues have the Alternator and battery tested.

 

Hi again,

So here are the latest news.

The below had been done recently (like 6 months ago):
- new air filter
- engine oil + filter change


So far I have swapped the below parts from another Integra that was working fine and passing emissions in my country:
- O2 sensor;
- Catalytic converter;
- MAP sensor;
- IACV (so cannot be dirty one as it was working fine on the other car).

This week the below was done in the dealership:
- New original spark plugs
- Valves adjustment
- Injector cleaning liquid put in the gasoline tank

Despite all of the above I passed emissions again today and the car miserably failed (see attached picture where the max CO at idle is supposed to be "0.5" when it was reading "10.96"... Moreover, the idle became a disaster during the emissions test where the car was almost dying (it's very frustrating because the problem is hard to reproduce, the worst case seems when I start up the car again when the engine is warm but was shut off for like 5 mins). The guys at emissions kept it at 2000 rpm where the CO is supposed to drop to 0.30 according to them but the car was at like 7. At idle the measurements were always way too high.
As you can see the lambda is reading 0.682 when the correct measures to pass emissions are between 0.97 and 1.03.

The guys at the dealership didn't have the ECU reader for this car as it's the old Honda model apparently so I'll bring it next week to another shop that has it to try and see if there are any error codes (no check engine light is on). They don't have any idea what could be wrong at this point.

What do you think at this point? Swap the ECT sensor? My temperature gauge is correct, wouldn't it show inaccurate temperature if the sensor was bad? Could the distributor cap have anything to do with failed emissions?

 

Hi,

Just as an update it turned out to be the evap canister purge solenoid.

Seems all good now.

 

Hi, I seem to be having the same issue, idle not great, up and down somewhat, struggled with emissions also. Power seems lacking and not as sharp on the throttle as previous.
I’ve changed TPS but not much if any improvement.
this it might be the purge sensor, where did you manage to find one, I’m also uk based and seems a nightmare tracking one down.

cheers, Adam.

 

Hi Adam,
In my case, a friend had one in stock so I cannot help you find one. But I would suggest to check on Ebay.
Cheers.

 

managed to source one, hopefully it will sort out this issue as just seems flat compared to before, getting through fuel and very rough idle, surging no matter if cold or warm.

thanks again