First off I'm 20 and just got a 98 EX from my dad. I plan on making this my lil project car. I want to do most of the fixes on it myself so I can learn my way around the hood of the car.

Here's all the info on the car's condition:
My dad's girlfriend has been the only owner of the car. Before this year she has never had anything replaced on the car (thats about 11-12 years of running without any maintenance). Well my dad wrecked the car sometime last november and we let it sit around a while before getting it fixed about a month ago. The damages on concerned the right fender and some damage to the right axle. While in the shop the guy also gave the car its first timing belt replacement, and somehow the catalytic converter was stolen. We had it replaced.

Replacements: Timing Belt, Catalylic Converter, spark plugs, battery (and the body and wheel repairs)

Problem:
Now the CEL is on. The engine idles roughly and goes up and down. This stops when the a/c is on. We took it to autozone and they checked the computer for the error. Said the IACV and the O2 sensor need replacing. Now I wanted to try cleaning it before dishing out $250, but I am having trouble locating it. I've been looking around the throttle body I believe and judging from pics i've seen my IACV seems to be missing. I'm most likely wrong. I am attaching pics in hopes that someone can point it out for me.

 

Your pictures aren't real clear but it appears you have an automatic transmission car, which has a different IACV. It's mounted on the bottom of the throttle body and has a 3 wire plug. Most of the pictures you find are for the manual EX. Look up your exact model on hondaautomotiveparts there are diagrams of where the parts go.

 

Yours is definitely missing, is it possible someone stole it?

It looks like this:



and should be located here:

 

lol, I knew something looked off.

DERP

 

Ok thats exactly where i figured it was when I looked last night. Last night I sprayed the carb cleaner into the hole in the mouth of the throttle body as instructed by a few videos and post. I wasn't sure how long i should let it sit afterwords and when i went to start it I had trouble, guessing I flooded it with the spray. So I let it sit for about 20-30 min and came back to it. It started and ran perfect for about 2 mins and then went back to the pulsing idle. Should i try this technique again or do i have to take the iacv off to fully clean it?

 

Definitely remove the IACV and clean it out.

 

In the last pic you can see the iacv connected to the bottom. Its gonna be kinda hard to get to but I'm gonna do it. If it is not damaged do you think cleaning it will be good enough?

 

Also the engine sounds loud. I know that the high idle makes it louder but thats not what I mean. It sounds like there is an unsealed gap or something somewhere and air is blowing out.

 

So I cleaned the iacv and the idle proble was still there. Its not damaged tho. Could it be the sensor that's causing the problem alone?

 

There's also the FITV that can be cleaned. I don't have a diagram handy though.

Here is a direct link to the factory service manual for your Civic. Download it and keep it around. It has saved me more than once.
http://downloads.hondatech.info/Auto...e%20Manual.zip