Hi guys!

Had surging issues w/ my 96 Honda Civic DX, 113K miles.
After it got to operating temp, it seems that the throttle would stick open
causing the car to want to surge thru the brakes at stoplights.
Started about 4 wks ago.

Pulled off the TB, cleaned the butterfly value circumference as well as
the cylinder walls. Took of the IACV and cleaned that. Applied new gaskets.
There was never a CEL but I applied my OBD2 scan tool anyway. No codes
and no pending codes, e.g., throttle positions sensor or MAP sensor.
Idle is good. 700RPM at idle w/ no a/c and about 770RPM at idle w/ a/c.

The TB had been off the car three yrs ago for a similar situation, i.e., surging.
There had been no surging until about 4 weeks ago. The TB was pretty clean.
Applied degreaser to the spring mechanism of the throttle cable pulley structure
associated with the throttle linkage.

Changed the throttle cable as well. Now, how to adjust correctly? There are two nuts, one a
nut and the other a flange nut. My first attempt had the nut closer to the firewall when
I tightened the flange nut. That orientation did not permit the butterfly from closing completely
and the engine continued to surge after releasing the throttle linkage manually. I then moved the
nut a few turns further away from the firewall and tightened it down w/ the flange nut. That seemed to
allow complete closure of the butterfly but the accelerator pedal is on 'hair trigger' mode. I would like
a couple mm of slack in the cable.

Is my adjustment protocol correct? Can I get that little bit of cable slack by moving the nut
a few more turns away from the firewall and then tightening down the flange nut?

The idle remains good.

Thanks.

 

The procedure is in the downloadable service manual. There should be some slack (~1/2") so that throttle plate can completely close.