Hello all, this is my first post on the forum.

I have a 1992 Honda Accord EX with 184,000 miles on it. The car runs great and I haven't had any major mechanical problems since I've had the car which is about 8 years now.

Recently I noticed it started idling a little lower than usual which sometimes causes the engine to die. I was wodering if anyone could tell me what the normal engine idle speed is? Right now it's well below 1000 RPM. Somewhere between 500 RPM and 800 RPM. Also, where would I make the adjustment? I'm assuming that it's somewhere on the fuel injection system?

Thanks in advance for any helpful input.

William

 

First thing to try is clean out the throttle body. Crud builds up around the edges of the throttle plate & in the throat where the plate sits when it's closed.

I don't have a '92, but 700 to 800 rpm sounds like where the idle should be anyway...

 

How long ago did you do a good tune up? Tune ups usually causes these problems to go away. I do know however, there were some recalls i believe for these models, but i'm not sure what for. You might wanna look into this incase this might be one of your issues. Mine surges up and down too...

 

Surging up & down is often caused by a vacuum leak.

 

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions, everyone.

 

yeah my 90 idles at 500-600, never has a problem, never dies. but if its causin your car to die then sounds like you might wanna clean out the throttle body like JimBlake says.

 

my car has had some of the same kind of problems. My car never died from idling too low, but all the same. Your tach should read somewhere around 700-800rpm +/- 50rpm at a true idle. In gear, I think that number drops about 50-100rpm. Mine after driving around a while, sitting a stop light will oftne drop down to about 600-650. As for surging idle, it depends on when it does it, it can either be the IAC valve or a vacuum leak.

Make sure your throttle body is clean, and the IAC valve is clean. Also, if it's idling so low that the car is dying, just adjust the idle as per the factory service manual's procedure...it's just a screw. on the top of the throttle body. Losening it too much will cause a surging idle as well.

- Nathan