[ademco]

OMFG this car is really starting to piss me off. How about some background information, you never know what will be important and honestly I find more information is be information in situations like this.

I have a 1990 Honda Civic LX sedan. I believe it is the 1.6 ltr engine. Since I have owned it (about a year) I have replaced the following.
Timing belt
Distributer cap
Distributer roater
Plugs
Plug wires
Exaust manifold
O2 sensor
CAT

This brings us to about a month ago. Now note that the car has always had a low idle (about 750 rpm) and since I have owned it has had a ghost idle, car revs with no pressur on the throdle cable. Recently it started idling rough at stops. A friend of the family told me this was most likely a alternator problem so I replaced it. NO HELP. I was doing some research on the web and talking to some people and everything seemed to point to air in the coolant lines (coolant was low so I topped it off and bleed the system) OR a dirty IACV. I went and got a can of carburetor cleaner and cleaned that. Actually this did help for a little while ( about two weeks) then the problem came back and with a vengeance.

When the problem came back I looked under the hood. I noticed that the line to the IACV had water around it. I loo0ked closer and realized that I cracked the coolant line coming out when I had taken it off so I replaced the line cleaned the IACV AGAIN and put it all back together. This should have, in my opinion solved the problem again, actually it did not help anything.

Now the problem is intermittent. Meaning it doesn't do it all the time. BUT it is getting worse meaning it does it more often now. I think there is a possibility that the IACV is BAD all together, which would explain why it helped a little in the beginning ( it was dirty) then got worse (it finally broke after I cleaned it?? ) but I don't know and the part costs 80 bucks. Which doesn't sound like a lot of money until you realize I have a kid to sup[port and I live on unemployment since my last employer went out of business. Now I have the 80 but its 80 of my last 110 bucks and if that isn't it I'm pretty screwed. I have a friend that knows more about cars than I do and he told me to check the vacuum lines going to the intake manifold. I checked them no visiable cracks. I do hear what sounds like a vacuum leak (pressurized air coming from a line) coming from the air lines near the master cylinder and power stearing fluid resavour. I felt up and down the lines and can't feel any air. I have what I can only assume is a hot air exaust of sorts coming over the top of the radiator and it may be coming from that but I don't think so. I need help. I know a little about cars but I am a computer guy not a car guy. If you tell me the name of a part I can go get it from the store and generally find where it goes and replace it if I wouldent need special tools. But I do not have special diagnostic tools for cars. My questions are below. My check engine light did come on for the first time tonight even though I have been expeariancing this problem for a month or so. Like I said it is A 90 so mechanics want to charge 100 at least for a check engine test and I don't have that.

What are the likely culprets for this problem?
Dose it sound plausible that it could be a bad IACV?
Is there a easy way to track down a vacuum leak that any dummy can do without special tools?

[TxGreaseMonkey]

Thoughts:

When you filled the radiator, to purge any air from the system, did you have the temperature slide set to maximum heat and the bleeder bolt open?

Clean the throttle body and throttle plate with carburator spray and a rag. Also, ensure the upper and lower ports are clean--major dirt can build-up around these ports.

When you cleaned the IACV, did you clean the inside screen with brake cleaner?

[ademco]

I did purge the air from the coolant system with the valve set to heat

Unfortunately I do not know what the throttle plate ot throttle body is but I am sure I can look that up on YouTube.

When I cleaned the IACV I took the entire piece off both bolts and lines) I cleaned inside the screen both water line ports and there appears to be a white spiral thingie inside of it that was black that I cleaned as well. I let all parts dry for a half a hour both times before reassembeling it. SO in short yes it was cleaned thourally