This has been happening for sometime now, but it has occured more lately. When i'm in a parking lot, or driving slow in an area, once i push the clutch in, after moving, the revs will drop so low, the car will die on me. Anyone had this problem, or what the cause could be.

 

My A/C has caused me to stall before, when im just idling.

 

You don't indicate what year or motor you've got, but if you set the base idle correctly, the engine should never drop below it and stall.

Pull the plug off the IACV and set the idle to your base spec, normally around 650rpm. The base idle is adjusted by turning the air bypass screw on the front of the throttle body. Before you go through that proceedure, you may want to remove the IACV and give it a good douche with carb cleaner.

You will have to pull the backup fuse to clear the ECU's stored trouble code that you will get by unplugging the IACV.

 

For chrissakes, already, just rip out the a/c, b16Civic...

as long as your windows and moonroof still work...

 

Clean the throttle plate in the TB.

 

Have the same problem, but only when the engine hasn't warmed up to normal operating temp yet, mechanic says its because im running rich.

Can someone post step by step instructions on taking apart the IACV? preferably with pics, I can't even find mine Engine is a JDM B16A taken from an EK4

Also instructions on cleaning FITV would be appreciated. Thanks!

Finally, I'm running an erick's racing ecu, is the ecu reset procedure the same as when running stock ecu?


[Modified by Benj, 7:33 PM 1/14/2003]

 

i thought i was the only one with this problem. but until now, i'm still lost as to what causes the problem. i've clean out the throttle plate of the tb as well as the iacv using carb cleaner but to know avail.

when i step on the clutch as the car slows down tach needle will drop below the normal idling rpm then jumps back to normal idle. the stalling only happened to me for about 5 times only but majority of the time is dropping idle and it's very annoying!

i've tried everything like, cleaning the t/b and throttle plate, cleaning iacv, checking tps voltage, resetting ecu. even now that my car is turbocharge it's still doing it, god damn it!

by the way, the car is a 99 SiR.

 

Do you have a lightwieght flywheel in it?

 

no lighten flywheel, just stock.

 

yea mines doing the same exact thing, i don't have lightwheight flywheel either, but some people in other forums , said cam gear, fuel settings, might have to do with it.

 

Here's what my '90 Civic Si used to do.

Starting with a cold engine....
Just as the temp gauge would start to move from cold, pressing in the clutch to coast to a stop light, the rpms would dip low and the engine would shudder briefly before recovering. Mine only stalled a few times, but did the idle drop a lot during that specific period during warm up. The problem was worse for some reason between 60 and 40 degree weather.

I cleaned the IACV, adjusted the base idle to spec, and replaced the O2 sensor with an OEM sensor. (The cheaper 2 generic Bosch sensors I tried didn't work long or not at all.) No more idle drop.

Good luck.

 

weird ****, i had a 97 ex civic cpe, for 3 years, till she died, about the last 8 mos. i had it, it would do that same ****, i didn't have a/c or p/s, on it, i would be sitting at a light or something and the tach would be at 700-800rpm and would just slowly go down to 0rpm and die, it was weird b/c you could watch it, and it would literally be idling at 100-200rpm, it did that all the time, needless to say, not but about 3-4mos. after that it died. i have no idea what was wrong with that motor, the last few weeks of driving it before she died, for instance i'm driving home from work a good 30 min. drive, on the highway, the car was at normal running temp, everything was fine, i had just swooped off of a exit ramp was in 2nd gear, accelerated to get onto the highway as soon as i hit 5k rpm, it sounded like i was hitting the rev limiter, but it sounded different, it wasn't a real fasst bounce sound like if you were trying to bounce the rev limiter, it was a real slow rev limit, bawaaa, bawaaaa, real slow, i was like what the ****. when i got home everything checked out fine, oil full, clean, everything i could think of was fine, me and my friend were almost positive, that it was b/c vtec wasn't engaging do to low oil, but it wasn't low at all, and the weird thing was it would do it for a few miles, and then it would be fine for a few days after that??? a week after this happened, i was coming home and noticed a loud banging sound coming from the block, it was a rod, knocking it knocked for not much long after that and locked up, it died. when i tore the motor down it needed new rod bearing, one piston was dinged, and 2 xhaust valves were stuck out and bent. i knew this was all fixable, but i was leaning towards a b16 anyways, another thing that was odd was the fact that the car was a 97, the head was stamped 97, but the blocked was stamped 95?? i know there basically the same, motor wise, but i thought that was wrong, i had bought the car in 99, at a honda dealership used, and it had 38k miles, but hell i don't know it might of been fuked befor i got it, anyways don't have the car anymore, now i have a 93 si hatch, and i love it alot more, its lighter(noticeably), quicker, and it handles better, i have plans for it, sometimes i wanna get another ek cpe, silver and make it look just like my old one, b/c i had so many memories with that car.

 

i cleaned the iacv also and checked the tps voltage and resetted the ecu but to no avail.

one thing i haven't touch was adjusting the idle speed. i didn't bother adjusting the idle speed coz it seems it's up to spec LOOKING at the tachometer. another reason was the thought that idle speed shouldn't change if there's nothing wrong with the car in the first place as the ecu will adjust it. am i right for thinking this way or do the idle speed fluctuates with age and ecu can't do anything?

 

Heh, MIRRA, the same thing happened to your car that happened to my Teg. Except I know EXACTLY why she died(people I bought her from didn't take care of the car at ALL) and I wish I could afford a b16.

 

This kind of relates to this. I kind of have this problem except mine is opposite my car like right when i start it chills at 1200 rpm's and then about after 5 or 6 minutes it goes below 1,000 and stays there till i park it for the night. It only does this right when i start my car after a while....Is this normal if not what does this mean...its at about 1200 rpms then goes below 1000 after about eh maybe 5 minutes....and it shakes to slightly when im like at a light.....like on a scale 1-10 it shakes at about 3 not bad...i notice it does that in a lot of cars though what does this mean.....

 

The idle speed is controled by the IACV. It will open to allow more air in to increase your idle speed. I bet if you unplug the electrical connector on the IACV, your engine will die. This shouldn't be the case. The idle screw, or air bypass screw, should allow the engine to idle at the base idle spec, normally around 600 to 650 rpm. The air passages can get gunked up however and not let the bypass screw do it's thing.

 

yes when i pulled the IACV connector out , to try to adjust my idle, the engine would die, so this means i have to do what to correct the problem.??

 

I had this happen on my car a few times also and it was the oil pump that went bad...check the oil pump and if it needs to be changed then thats the problem. But more than likely that will be it

 

Like mentioned above... Check you cam(s)/crankshaft alignement if you have not already, along with the fuel pressure and regualtor. Mine has exhibited that type of behevior, when one of those problems has been present... hehehehe

 

maybe yours was just a case of base idle not up to spec that's why it stalled when you pulled the connector. idle should drop when the connector is pulled but not stall. try adjusting your base idle and see if idle still drop.

mine, i guess is different, coz when i pulled the connector it didn't stall at all but idle speed went down which i heard was normal and that the iacv was functioning properly. up to now, idle still drop to 500rpm when i stepped on the clutch pedal but immediately jumps up to proper idle and i know it should go down to proper idle speed and drop below it even if you bring the engine to redline. i guess i'll just leave it as it is. stupid idle!

 

I have a Civic Hatch 89 and when the idle was doing something like that the alternator was dying on it. One day the engine just died on the interstate on my way to Houston. Luckly I was just 20 miles from home and I had my brother pick me up. Like with all problems with cars, there are certain ones that are dead give aways. Example, master brake cylinder going out. Brake pedal goes all the way down to the floor and you don't slow down when you brake. So, in my case... My alternator was jacked up so my car would die out when the temp outside was cold like less than 50F outside or so. If you tried everyone else's advice and it still hasn't done anything to fix the problem, check out your alternator.