hi i have a 92 civic si hatchback with 340xxxkm's on the car/motor, recently it seems to be having a couple problems (not major ones). First off the car idles (when warm) at like 200rpm (way below 1k mark) and it(revs) sometimes pulses up and down at idle. Also i seem to have a heating problem, the car runs right at the middle mark on the temp gauge (normal range i think) most of the time, but sometimes (no different driving conditons ie highway) it will rise above the middle mark and when i turn the interior fan on (blowing heat into the cabin) the temp gauge goes back down to normal, also sometimes on the highway it will go hot then back down to normal, could it be that my thermostat is messed up and not turning on the fan at the right times? (fan does work i checked by keeping the car revved at 3k out of gear and it turns on after sometime). Any explainations/causes would be welcome! thanks, i've searched but this is pretty specific

cliff notes: heating problem, low idle(occasionaly surges)

 

Dood it has over 300k, do a swap and you'll have a new car... It's too much headache to worry about all those problems in my opinion. Take the gd thing out and drop a b18c1 or c5 in. Think of it as buying a new car.

 

Simple fix. Drop a motor. Stop being cheap or save up for one.

 

B18C5 motor Your going to spend more money on fixing the car then you would put a nice engine into it and never worry about those problems again

 

That's kinda funny you posted this. My 92 Si (178,000 miles on the clock) I just got back on the road last week and is sometimes doing the same strange idle/surging. It will idle down to just above the first hash mark and sometimes studder like it misses a beat. Then other times it will take a little longer than I expect to come down from high idle (hangs around 1500) and will pulse back and forth from about 1200-1500. I'm on my 2nd tank of fuel since I got it going again and it seems to be getting better ( no surging at least) but was also wondering why it was doing these things. It purrs like a kitten otherwise so it's not a major concern to me. A couple things have crossed my mind as to why it could be doing this.

TPS is crapping out on me
Fuel filter is in need of replacement
Maybe a vacuum line is leaking (but I would expect my symptoms to be there all the time if this were the case)
And probably the most logical....she's just getting old and senile.

Simple solution is the swap it out, which I'd love to do, but until someone buys the engine for me it's not happening. My money tree appears to have died.

 

well i'm in the process of a LS/turbo setup but i was just wondering whats up with it. although it still runs like a champ it just bugs me that theres something wrong with it but you are all definatly right, time to swap it! i was really just wondering whats wrong:D