I just bought a '92 honda civic about a week ago and did the timing belt yesterday. We did the timing belt, cmashaft seals, valve cover gasket and water pump. After everything was put back together it was idling badly, like it was missfiring to the point where it almost dies. I know the alternater and distributor have both been replaced but it was running fine before we worked on it and we didnt touch the distributor at all. Any ideas?

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Nice picture you got there. On a more serious note, what does bad idle mean exactly? Is the idle too high or low? Or does the car shake?

 

The engine shakes, itll idle fine for a few seconds, then idle lower and lower and almost die. Then itll idle fine for aonther few sconds. It kind of has a pattern to the bad idle which maked me think its either the timing belt or the distributor

 

Do you think it is possible you may have aligned the camshaft one tooth out of time from the crankshaft when slipping that belt on? It can sometimes be a little hard to get a good straight ahead view of the pulleys and the reference marks. I've seen this happen before, (not on a Honda, but other 4 cylinders) and the cars will run. The valves won't interfere, but the cars usually exhibit that erratic idle you described. Just a suggestion, assuming nothing else was disturbed.

 

you may have left yourself with a vacuum leak

 

K k, we redid the timing belt and it was out of line one tooth. Idle is ok now. Now i have a new problem When i come to a stop the rpms will drop super low, like 1 or 2 hundred! I popped the hood and its idling without any problems, i revved it up a bit and itll come back down to super low rpms. I got back in the car and started gassing it and letting it drop back down. After a few times messing around it died on me and wouldnt start again for a few minutes. Im not sure if this is the dreaded "main relay" issue. Anyone have any ideas?

 

If you like that picture so much, you can set it as a avatar or a sig pick. Now onwards to the idle problem. You can adjust the idle by first disconnecting the IAC. Then start the car. There is should be an adjustment screw on the throttle body, turn the screw until your engine is at the desired RPM. Turn the engine off, plug the IAC back in. Start the engine (with the IAC plugged in) and check the idle.

 

i have the same problem with my car not wanting to start (sometimes , that is) after it has been turned off for just a short time. did not know about the relay until reading the forum.
would appreciate if you post as to what you find out about the relay (if you subsequently look at it). i have too many other things to do right now.

 

That is an option, but definitely a last resort in my opinion. That's a factory set screw, and is factory set for a reason. Under almost all conditions I've come across, there's no reason to mess with it. I only say this because I've fixed more poor idling Hondas (in various conditions) than I can count, and the only one I ever needed to slightly adjust was one with over 250,000 miles with very low compression. Other people may have had different experiences (and different opinions), but if the car was idling fine before, then I would look for other causes first. If there is another hidden problem, and you adjust the screw anyways, you are only putting a bandage on the wound. We all know bandanges can't stay on forever.

 

i would check the idle air control valve on the back of your intake manifold. those things get clogged up with carbon and soot and sh*t like that. my civic was idling crappy until i cleaned the screen on the iacv. another possibilty is it could be the throttle positioning sensor.