So, my saga continues....96 Accord LX 2.2L 165k miles

For those who didn't read my other thread, car was dying while driving, and then not restarting. Tracked it down to a bad ICM. When I pulled the ICM out, the heatsink on it was swimming in oil. I replaced the entire distributor. I also replaced the valve cover gasket and tube seals because during troubleshooting, I discovered that the spark plugs were also swimming in oil. I also replaced the plugs.

Car starts every time now, and for the most part is running great. My only challenge at the moment is that when the car warms up, the idle is rough. When I stop at a red light, I am very worried that it is going to stall. It seems like it is worse when the A/C is on and even worse still when the radiator fans kick in. The car hasn't actually stalled on me, but it does run sluggish at the red lights and the tach goes down below 700.

One additional piece of information. This morning as I was driving to work, the CEL came on. I stopped by Advance Auto to have them read the code. The guy says it is the post cat o2 sensor out of range.

What do you think would be causing these symptoms, and what do you suggest I do next?

 

The cat code may be from an engine miss. A bad enough miss and a cat will turn cherry red and you car will barely run. As you changed the dist and spark plugs I would start with that. Is the firing order correct, is the timing correct, did a spark plug damaged, or the gap closed being install. Does your dist have a dual vacuum advance hose that could be switched?

I find to get to the heart of a problem like yours doing a cylinder balance test gets me either which cylinder is missing or if it is a global problem. At a garage they use a machine to cancel out each cylinder and compare which is doing the least work. At home you can have someone put a load on the motor raise the RPMS until you feel the miss and hold it there while removing the spark plugs wires, then reinstalling them and checking the next cylinder. You get the load by putting the vehicle in gear and with foot on brake and use reverse for less chance of running you over. If you have a miss one cylinder will not make much of a change in smoothness and RPM drop. They make a plastic pliers to use for the test as you will get shocked.

 

I would start by pulling the 7.5 amp backup/radio fuse in the engine bay fuse box for a minute. Start the car and allow it to reach operating temperature so the PCM can relearn the idle.

If that doesn't work, you can change the timing by shorting the two-pin connector under the glove box and rotate the distributor to get it timed properly. You would need a timing light and an assistant to do this.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try them. Question about this 7.5 amp fuse I keep reading about. It controls the radio and the PCM? There has been a funny thing going on with the radio. The display goes totally in and out. I just figured the head unit was bad, but now I'm starting to think I might have a bigger electrical problem. Am I being paranoid? Can I just replace the OE radio with an aftermarket or is that going to fry the PCM?

 

I think that the PCM has several power sources.

An aftermarket radio for the accord shouldn't draw enough current to screw up the PCM. The worse it could do is blow a fuse with an excessive draw, which is unlikely. You may want to check the grounds that are for the radio as well.

 

Is there any trick to installing an aftermarket head unit? I keep reading all of this anti-theft stuff, and it's kind of confusing.

 

The anti-theft stuff is for the OEM radio.

You will have to get a conversion harness that plugs into the back of the radio and into the car's radio wiring harness. You will have to properly connect the wires in between and use a crimp connection or solder to hold it together.

That is why I went with the 97 SE radio that doesn't have a tape deck, just the radio and CD player. Now I have the pocket back to store extra stuff under it. It was plug and play and I didn't have to worry about how to mount it in there.

 

Okay...I took your advice and unplugged the fuse for about a minute. It is definitely holding it's idle a lot better, but now it is doing a strange thing that it hasn't done before. While it is sitting at idle, if I rev the engine up to 1500-2000 rpms and then let off the pedal, the tach momentarily drops below 700rpm and feels like it's going to die. It recovers on it's own, but it seems strange and troubling.

 

Set your base idle. The IACV might be fighting to hold the proper idle, and when you drop from 1500 it does that because it's not positioned right to catch it properly.

Just because your idle actually runs at the right RPM, doesn't mean the base idle is correct.

 

Thanks Jim. Can you link to a good DIY for that procedure?


Edited: Nevermind, I found several posts where you explained how to set the base idle. I just wish I saw some where the original poster said that it fixed their problem.