Okay, Most of the problems that I see everyone has with Hondas is that the idles surges... My problem with my idle is different... Everytime I put my clutch in the RPM drops to zero and the car dies. I took it to a mechanic and he ran a diagnostic... He said there was a problem with the Catylitic converter and then he said there was an issue with an air sensor. Also, my engine light is on.

First he recommended that I get a tune-up and that may fix the car dying.... I got the tune-up and it helped a little but after about ten minutes of driving the car started dying again.

I brought it back in, and then he did a quick fix and just upped my idle instead of actually fixing the problem. I really don't think that he knows WHATS wrong with car and doesn't want to fix something and not have the car fixed.

Does anyone know what could be wrong with my car? It runs GREAT when the clutch isn't in... and then the RPM plummets and it dies...

Secondly... Could my Idle level being upped negatively affect my car? I feel like it's working harder when it's not moving, and also that I'm wasting gas by having the rpm be at 3 instead of 1 like it's supposed to be.

PLEASE help!

 

3 as in 3000 rpm??? that is crazy. Ok first of all get the check engin light read at your local auto zone. Many times it is something really easy to fix and it may even fix your engine dying problem. If it doesn't come back and let us know, but first thing is first. You cannot expect your enging to run perfect if the brain(ECU) is telling you something is wrong. for the most part I feel the dying out issue will be fuel or air related, but the ECU and sensors must be working properly before you can go any further.

 

No, I don't know what the RPM is actually... Ya know, the dial says 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 whatever.... I don't know what it actually means... all I know is that it's idling at 3 on the dial.

I DID get a diagnostic, and it said something was wrong with an air sensor, which is fine. I can get that fixed. But instead of fixing it, my mechanic just made my idle higher when I'm stopped or something. Basically it was a quick fix, and I'm wondering if that can hurt my car because its not the normal idling rate. I hope this is making sense.

I'm a 24 year old woman, and I know a little bit about cars, but not enough to know if this guy is full of **** or not.

 

Perfect sense. It is as shame that there are mechanics out there that do try to take advantage of people,.. men as well. That is why I never let anyone else tough my car unless it is someone I know and trust.
Ok well the numbers are normally multiplied by a factor of 10, or 100 or 1000. If you look at the bottom of the gauge it will tell you the multiplier,… in this case 1000. If you have an automatic then your torque converter is taking a beating at those RPMs and if your have a stick then you will be burning the clutch every time you take off from a start. So yes there will be some negative effects coming from an idle set at 3000 rpm.
Now what come to mind when you said the check engine light was referring to an air sensor of some sort is the Mass Air Flow(MAF) sensor. If that is the sensor it was referring to then yes it will affect your idle. The engine is suppose to run at a certain air to fuel ratio. When there is too much air or too much fuel it will idle bad, stumble and so on. Same thing when there is too little of either one of those. This will be more apparent at lower RPMs. The purpose of the MAF is to tell the ECU(brain) how much air is coming in to the engine so it could adjust the fuel respectively. Now if the MAF is not working correctly it will affect the way the ECU will respond to that signal and mess up your air/fuel mixture. I would suggest you take it back to the mechanic and get the idle back down. Then get the air sensor problem fixed to clear the CEL. Then go from there.

 

Amazing response! Thanks so much.... I knew that my idle running so high couldn't be good for my car. I got this car with 40,000 miles on it.. now it has 120,000 and I've never replaced the clutch. If I kept the idle at this level, I would be asking to replace it sooner then later! Thanks for the help.

 

i would bring it to a honda dealership if u wanna get it done right the first time.

 

I just don't want to get charged for them taking the idle back down to the normal rate, but they have to fix it at the same time or else it will die! (

 

i have the same problem with my '95 EX but it dosnt stall. If u have the money, i suggest buying new O2 sensors, new spark plugs, wires, cap, rotor, PCV valve, and fuel filter. everything except the O2 sensor will cost u about $80+ at ur local auto store and its cake to install. I did all of that except the O2 sensors and it helped out a tad bit, it idols at about 200-300 now....also make sure that ur battery has a good connection and everything is tight. there is a way to change the idol without doing all that maintence stuff. theres 2 small screws on ur intake manifold and turn them to the left i think veeeery very slightly, untill ur idol is where u want it. be careful tho, if u do it to much it can mess up the timing of ur car and u could have more problems...

good luck!

 

Yeah, no real need to take it to the stealers, but they do from time to time have people that know what they are doing there and have worked with the typical issues on our cars. Personally I don’t take my car in when it needs repair, but that is just because I enjoy working on my car. Did you get the Cat replaced? Mine has about 160,000 miles on it and still passed smog. I had replaced it with an aftermarket POS and it burned up in less than 30K miles so I threw the stock original back in and not problems since. Oh and I have seen stock clutches go on for up to 200,000 miles if driven correctly. I got mine replaced after about 100K miles since I had the tranny off anyway, but it still looked good, and I am pretty hard on my car too so you know with care they will last.

 

I would only replace the O2 sensor when it has been confirmed to be bad or slow. As with my Cat, I replaced my O2 sensor with an aftermarket at about 160K miles and it failed the next emissions. I replaced it with the original 160K mile O2 sensor and it passed with no problems. If you end up replacing it, go OEM and since they are pretty pricy, make sure you absolutely need it.
As far as the idle is concerned, it should be at 650 rpm +/- 50(for my car at least). Not at 200-300. That is just too low. Oh and I would advise against messing with the idle screws. They are preset at the factory and if your idle changes it is most like because of something other than the screw setting. I have 210,000 miles on my car and whenever an idle issue came up it was something other than the screw setting. Yes it was very hard to resist messing with the screw setting, but it is a good thing I never did as it would just cover up the real problem and mess up everything else.
Good idea though about the tune up you mentioned which included the pcv valve, fuel filter as well. I would go as far as to say, air filter and professional cleaning of the injectors as well.