i am working on a carbed 88 accord AT. the car goes to high idle when cold, as soon as it warms up the idle drops like it's going to stall then jumps to about 1500 then near stalling then back up again over and over. i cannot find any vacuum leaks, cap, rotor, wires and plugs are new. once the car is moving it runs fine. i did a search but didn't find much about carbed cars. only thing relevant is maybe low antifreeze? any help is apreciated, i'm getting stumped...

the car has about 100,000 miles.

thanks,
mj

 

run a complete fuel system cleaner in the car. clean the t/b. run high octane (91 or higher) fuel.

That should help clean out that system and the valves. Also when my wife's car had a vacumm leak the rpms just stayed really high, didn't surge.

Try replacing the PCV valve and hose.

Other than that, try the engine reset fix. Disconnect the battery for like 15 minutes and then reconnect and drive. I dunno if it will work for an older model car but ya never know.

 

I had the same thing happen to an 88 I had.Before you spend any money get a flathead screwdriver and find the idle screw on the passenger side of the motor.Start the car and wait until it starts surging then idle it down until it stops.Mine only did it in park and/or with the A/C on.

 

today it's surging between 500 & 1000 rpm's, but no all the time. it seems to have a miss when the egr (i believe) opens up as it warms up and the carb comes off of high idle. if i rev it to 1250 (egr closes-or at least the exhaust noise goes away) and it runs smooth. idles at around 750. put it in drive and it surges once and then idles crappy. how do you check for soft codes on these cars? there's no cel but i feel it might be egr related. then again maybe i'm an idiot

 

turn the car on.Look under back of driver seat.Open the little window and there should be a red light that will flash the code.

 

either do a motorswap and trick out that piece of nostalgia or just get a newer car. in the end a carbureted honda isnt woth the trouble.

 

i have an 88 accord that did the same thing. I had a vacuum leak, fixed that and changed out the egr valve. Got it from the junkyard for $30. Now, it works fine.
Hope that helps.

 

where is the pcv valve on this car? the haynes manual is terrible and all the vacuum hoses are crazy. i found something that looks lika a pcv on the firewall and am not sure if thats it. i found the ecu under the seat. it has a green light, but its not flashing any codes. do i need to put the car in diagnostic mode somehow?

thanks,
bill