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My quest to get this civic running well continues! Now I have a check engine light that comes on and off randomly, so I went down to the store to borrow a code scanner… so I have 2 codes:
P0118 – enigne coolant temp sensor – this is probably from me flushing out the system with water and refilling it, so i am not too concerned about this, its running temp wise fine in bumper to bumper traffic (new water pump and timing belt too).
P1456 – evap control system leakage (gas cap) – this is the one that has me intrigued.
From what I understand P1456 is from the gas cap side of things and can be a gas cap or a solenoid.
Here is what makes it interesting, at a stop signn / light, it idles really low, like 600 rpm and 700 with the a/c on. It feels like it is about to stall when you stop and it feels like it is going to stall when you start out at the light, other than that it runs perfectly fine, accelerates great, no real issues.
Any suggestions?
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Your idle condition may be a coolant temp sensor ( which you can test with a dvom ) I would bleed the cooling system to make sure you have no air in it ( follow erics video on that )
The evap code could be a leak in one of the hoses so check all hoses for cracking.
From what I have read, you are correct that it could be the coolant temp sensor.. which I just find odd (not saying I doubt you at all). I just don’t see how coolant level has anything to do with Idle. At least if it is a ETC, they are 20 bucks on amazon, so that is much better than the Torque Converter than I thought, cause they do the same thing with the idling…
We shall see if this is it this weekend when I can get back at it with this.
Any other suggestions I should try if that isn’t it?
I mentioned air in the cooling system since you said you just did a water pump. if you have air in the cooling system it can cause idle problems. I would make sure that the system is free from air. erics video on bleeding the system will show you how . after doing that I would address the etc sensor and also check for vacuum leaks.
well I think it was the coolant thing. I opened up the radiator with it cold and it was full, I start the car and let it idle until it warmed up to operating temp with the heat on high, but the fan off… it warmed up and as soon as it hit temp, I started to get some air bubbles.. not a lot but enough. I had to top off the cooland 6 to 8 times. I then reved the engine to 1500 – 2000 for 30 seconds, came back, added more coolant, did this step several times. until I didn’t have to add coolant,. I let it idle for about 30 seconds and reved it again, no movement or bubbles. I left it idle a bit more, then shut it down and capped it. I tossed in a little 50/50 into the resivour too and took it for a spin.
The drive was 1.5 miles of city / neighborhood streets. Then 1.5 miles of highway and through the tunnels back home. No studdering, not dropping of idle and almost stalling. nice smooth idle drop,nice smooth pick up. Ran it hard out of the hole a few times and it was still fine. Basically gave it a good lashing if you will.
So I think that is what it was.
I did see the grounding wire from the block to the front of the car (by the radiator) is fraying, so I guess this is something I should change out…
thanks for you help 619DioFan.. Dio rocked for a long long time….
I am very happy to hear you solved your idle problem. It is amazing how air in the cooling system can cause so much havoc. glad I could help. and yes Dio is was and will always be the man on the silver mountain.
Now that you know but Hondas idle is coolant dependent. Even a little air bubble some times cause irratic idle.
yea.. it is really odd, from what I see the ETC sensor is at the very top of the cooling system. so if there is air, it will go to that sensor and cause it to error out.
now I have to fix the smell of gas, which is error P1456, but that can wait a bit.
#1 cause of idle problems especially on Honda’s is air in the cooling system, the air gets trapped in the system and as a result the TW sensor will not read correctly and cause all kinds of problems with the injection system including the idle. The entire system is temperature dependent in fact the TW sensor is probably one of the most important sensors on the fuel injection system. Glad you got the problem solved, anytime you open the cooling system for repairs in the future make sure you bleed the system in order to ensure a proper repair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUpXgAJ1 … ure=relmfu
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