Cold weather idle problem

[fastacc]

I've got a 95 ex coupe with an f22 vtec and 5 speed. As I write this it is snowing where I am in Texas.....YEA SNOWING!!!! The temp went from 69 to 27 in a matter of a couple of hours, so here's my problem. I notice last night when I left the house that when I was at a complete stop with the clutch pushed in, the car was idling between about 1500-2000 rpms. Back and forth. So I thought maybe it was because it was so cold outside. I drove around a bit and finally got the damn thing warmed up. The same happened. I notice the only time it does this is when its cold. I know it usually idles up a bit on chilly days, but rpms drop when it warms up. Its acting like it tries to idle down but it doesn't......

 

[powerdriverh22]

so when idleing does it go up and down repeatedly?

 

[reikoshea]

my prelude does the same thing, but once the engine reaches operating temps, it goes back down. Dunno why, but it seems normal to me.

 

[fastacc]

Yeah it does it repeatedly. And reikoshea is right, once at op temp it quits.

 

[asmallsol]

actually it is normal, however, not ideal. The problem is your fast idle thermo valve or your FITV. This is located under your throttle bodie. What you have to do is take this off, disassemble and then there will be a plastic screw inside the body of the control valve. After all parts have been cleaned and put back on, loosely snug up the white plastic screw and reassemble. Put back on the car and rebleed the coolant system to get rid of any air introduced into the coolant system.

 

[powerdriverh22]

actually it is normal, however, not ideal. The problem is your fast idle thermo valve or your FITV. This is located under your throttle bodie. What you have to do is take this off, disassemble and then there will be a plastic screw inside the body of the control valve. After all parts have been cleaned and put back on, loosely snug up the white plastic screw and reassemble. Put back on the car and rebleed the coolant system to get rid of any air introduced into the coolant system.

that is a good idea but the fast idle will not fix the surging. I have to readjust my fitv every few months or so espically when it is cold becaue the idle creaps up.

i guess it is worth a shot to at least try

 

[asmallsol]

It fixed mine. For my jdm H22a, in cold weather (like 45* and lower) it would surge from as high as 3000 and bounce back down to around 800 or so until it warmed up. I do have an 8lb flywheel so that explains why it went so high, but after I cleaned my FITV it starts up and goes to about 1300 rpm and stays constant until it heats up.

 

[reikoshea]

oh okay...mine doesnt surge. mine goes to about 1300-1500 and then drops down to about 800 after its warm.

 

[asmallsol]

In really cold weather it just got too annoying because if you took off half the time you let off the clutch right when the surging was at its peak so you would almost burn out a little. It sucked.

 

[fastacc]

Yeah, it's more annoying than anything. People apparently think I want to race or something when it does that. I'll try cleaning the FITV and see. Thanks guys