2001 CRV...
When I first start my vehicle, the idle goes to approx. 1200 RPM,
then after a few seconds goes to approx 800. If the A/C is on it
drops to around 200 RPM and idles very rough...and at the same time
the A/C clutch will disengage and then engage. After I have driven
the car for approx a mile or so, the RPM is up to 800 while a idle
and the car runs smooth as silk. Any suggestions.
Note: Brand new sparkplugs, use high octane gas..even middle octane
Joe

When was the last time you had your fuel filter changed? If your
current filter is older than 30K miles, it is time to change it.

Bing

This is pretty common for four cyl. Camry's. You need to clean the TB and give it a full tune up with a new distributor cap, wires and NGK plugs.

This is pretty common for four cyl. Camry's. You need to clean the TB and give it a full tune up with a new distributor cap, wires and NGK plugs.

I have not cleaned out the throttle body, I will definitely check it out, thanks.

if your car runs fine until it warms up, your idle could be misadjusted. on the right side of your throttle body there is a small thing bolted on with coolant lines running through it and a blue and gray connection on the back. pull that electrical connection off and try to start your car. disconnecting this takes away computer idle assist. if it immediately stalls when you start it, keep it running by giving it a little gas. next, adjust the idle. the adjustment looks like a flat head bolt and is located in a recess near the front of the throttle body, near where the rubber air intake hose connects to the throttle body and under a red vaccuum hose. screw it counter clockwise to increase idle speed and clockwise to decrease. normally it should be 700 +/- 50 rpm, usually put mine around 600-650 and let the computer pick it up the rest of the way....although if your car idles fine w/out the assist connected this isnt the problem. try it and let me know what you find. brian

hey, I brought my car to in another dealership, they adjusted the idle, said that should do it. By the time I drove home it stalled at the ATM drive thru! It olny seems to stall when Im braking. It wont stall with my foot on the gas or my car is at a complete stop. Any suggestions? Thanks Greg

greg, it sounds like it stalls only when there is considerable load on it, like when slowing to a stop the transmission may bog the motor a little before it downshifts or when coming to a stop in first. i remember my auto used to bog slightly when stopping, it sounds like either poor ignition or dirty fuel injectors. you may want to test your wires with a meter, i think the resistance has to be less than 25k ohms or try replacing your spark plugs. before anything run some fuel injector cleaner thru ur tank if you havent done that in a while. also check your air filter for any blockages. does your car run smooth at idle or does it chug? if it doesnt idle smooth it could have a cylinder with low compression or again your injectors could be dirty. rpm fluctuation at idle is characteristic of dirty injectors. it could be one of a million things, like even a vaccuum leak, but hopefully its something simple. its hard to diagnose an intermittent problem like this without being there to look at the car....let me know what you find ill try to figure out what else could cause that. brian

hey one more thing always run premium gas in your vigor if you dont already do so. even though its more expensive its actually cheaper in the long run as it uses more gas to run correctly if you use a lower grade gasoline. not to mention your car will be slower performance-wise. switching brands of gas is also helpful at keeping injectors clean. does your engine ever knock? brian

Brian, I always put a 93 but Ive been using only Sunoco for the past two years. Also, unfortunately I tried to cut costs and get my timing belt and water pump done at Strauss. As a result they neglected to change the seals and now I have a leak will require removing the belts all over again. As a result, oil spills onto the exhaust and smoke rises through the engine. Could that be contributing to the problem? Could the alternator be a factor also?

As a result, oil spills onto the exhaust and smoke rises through the engine. Could that be contributing to the problem? Could the alternator be a factor also? -Greg- i would highly doubt that the oil/exhaust thing would affect your idle. i HAVE heard honda alternators can cause pretty funky symptoms when they have issues. the thing is, i wouldn't suspect a honda alt. to go bad. it CAN happen, but i'm not guessing it's likely. have you tried cleaning the throttle body? if ya have, did anything change at all? if ya haven't tried it, maybe give it a shot. it's totally easy, and costs a buck or two, and has definitely caused idle problems on MANY hondas. when the engine is cold, the valve is partially open cuz the throttle is set to a higher "choke." therefore a dirty throttle body won't cause problems when it's cold - only when the car returns to warm, low idle. after cleaning the throttle body, i'd do zactly like Brian sez - check the idle adjustment. there's a pretty decent step by step write-up at www.acuravigorclub .com under "FAQ," "regular maintenance." that's all *free* stuff, and also likely. after that, i'd worry about *other* stuff like freaky alternators. let us know! =) diesel

> hey, > I brought my car to in another dealership, they > adjusted the idle, said that should do it. By the time > I drove home it stalled at the ATM drive thru! It olny > seems to stall when Im braking. It wont stall with my > foot on the gas or my car is at a complete stop. Any > suggestions? Thanks > Greg oh. didn't read that first. yeah, i'd def. recommend spraying some O2 safe carb cleaner in the throttle body. see what happens. if i didn't do it with my own two hands on my roommates accord, i wouldn't worry about it as much. but his would stall at almost every stop light once the car warmed up. only when he was stopping, not after he stopped. once the computer realizes that the engine is struggling to keep running, it automatically gives it gas (like Brian said) so once you come to a stop, the computer has had time to compensate. but when you first let off the gas and the trans. slows and is no longer keeping the rpm's up on it's own, then it can stall out cuz the throttle body isn't allowing air in. after i cleaned out his throttle body, his car started and ran like new. it litterally went from dying almost every stop, to a car you'd send your grandma across the state in - in about two minutes. gas engines require 3 things to run. air/fuel ratio, compression, and spark. i'm bettin it's air/fuel causing your problem. compression would cause a problem throughout the rpm range. so would spark. diesel

diesel has a good point about the air/fuel mixture. what does cleaning the throttle body actually do? is there actually a choke or some sort of bypass butterfly that sticks open/closed? i wipe mine out whenever i clean my engine every month or so like back to the butterfly. seems like carb cleaner might be hard on intake manifold gaskets and other various rubber seals, as theyre only meant to seal against air and carbeurator gaskets are made to seal against gas. i may wanna try that on my car though bc behind the butterfly it looks pretty nasty. brian

hey greg, i doubt that rising smoke would cause your motor to run poorly unless you put a considerable amount back into the motor. if you hav ethe stock intake on it thats definitely not the cause because the opening for the intake is behidn the front bumper. the only thing the alternator could do is if a diode or something went on it and it screwed with the computer frequencies. one thing that i remember that happened to my vigor is i removed the cam gear cover one day to check my t belt and reassembled everything and my car would spontaneously missfire after that. it was terrible because there would be no spark for an entire turn of the motor and it would jolt the entire car. it turns out that there was a nut loose on my crankshaft/cam position sensor and it was rattling around and getting bad signals and killing my spark. however, if your car doesnt ever miss when youre driving this isnt the problem. just an interesting experience, a guy wanted 400 bucks to fix the problem at a local shop. let me know if cleaning the t body works. brian

I had the throttle body cleaned out and my car is definitely running much better but the stalling is still there. My pick up seems much better though. About a month ago my car was stalling and I took it in for service, I had the plugs replaced and the stalling went away for a while now its at it again. I went to the dealeship last week, they adjusted the idle and assured me that was the problem,..it still stalls. They did tell me that the alternator was making a "funny noise" and I should look at having it replaced in the not too far future but they didnt say that was the problem. I just dont want to shell out cash for the alternator right now if thats not the problem. Thanks for the info. Greg

About a month ago my car was stalling and I took it in for service, I had the plugs replaced and the stalling went away for a while now its at it again. > Greg hmmm. maybe yank the plugs out and take a peek. maybe there's a reason why changing the plugs had an effect the first time, and the condition could have repeated itself. pull the wire/boot out and shove a spark plug socket + extension down there and it should come right out. see what they look like. there's a description *somewhere* on www. acuravigorclub.com of what different plug conditions could indicate. from what you've told me, that's the only lead i've got... it's too bad it wasn't the throttle body - as easy and cheap (and common) as it is... have you had your emissions tested lately? those number can sometimes give you an indication of what's goin on in the combustion chambers too. let us know if you find anything! diesel

Actually, I was about to post that the stalling seemed to have been solved by putting in the fuel injection. I put it on Thurs. and my car was driving great since but it stalled this morning! I'll check out the plugs (even though the plugs are new)and the filter.