Euro Civic Type-R, jumping idle / surging under 3000 rpm

kani · Post by **kani** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 12:58 pm

Ive been running the kpro ecu happily since last summer. Now suddenly one morning after I didnt use the car for 1 week I've got trouble. I have been running AEM CAI, DC race header and some funky german catback exhaust from TSS-tuning.

The cold idle was strangely high, and then soon it started to jump up and down between 1500 and 2500 rpm. It seemed to run ok otherwise, I didnt use the car much for a week, maybe 2 trips of 1 km each (if you can even call that driving). I though it was just the idle. No CEL and Kmanager didnt show any codes. Idle was going up and down slightly when cold even before, but not like this "up, down, up, down, up, down".

Now I had time to test it a bit more. Even after the car warms up, its the same, idle jumping up and down. Before the idle was like stock when warm. Also now when driving under 3000 rpm in certain conditions the car surges/slows down. Over 3000 rpm it seems to work ok. When warm, slowing to a light and sometimes it shot even over 3000 rpm.

I took the AEM CAI off the car and put the standard airbox back on the car, in case I need to take it in to the dealer for diagnosis. Same symptoms with the stock airbox/filter. Next thing I'll try is take the old stock ECU I still have and take the car to the dealer and see if they can find anything out. Any better ideas?

Here you can find a datalog of starting a cold car:
http://users.tkk.fi/~jolaine/humppaa.kdl

Really annoying.. I'm moving, lots going on at work and home and now this crap..

Post by **Spunkster** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 2:57 pm

try cleaning your idle air controller. it is probably dirty and stuck.

kani · Post by **kani** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 4:40 am

The dealer changed the stock ecu to the car and they thought they fixed it. The symptoms went almost away. I drove 200 meters and then made a turn back to the dealer. The idle wonders some times and "sticks" when you coast to a light or stop the car, the idle is 1300-1500rpm and if I blip the throttle it goes down to normal rpm. In Finland there has never been idle problems with civics (thats what they tell me anyway). Also when I put the accessories on, the rpm goes really down, like the ecu cant control the idle.

Now it has the stock ecu, stock airbox / K&N filter, DC race header and a german unknown exhaust from TSS-tuning. The dealer was wondering if the race header would give problems to the stock ecu. I never drove previously the stock ecu with the race header, without cat.

I told them to clean the idle valve and check the vacuum hoses for leaks.

Does the idle control valve get more dirty with kpro or an intake compared to a stock car??

Is the hondata idle control different from the stock ecu?? The stock ecu seems to work better somehow. Also there has always been some cold idle issues with kpro. When I get this fixed I can send a datalog of it.

Post by **Hondata** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 2:05 pm

See the sticky at the top of this forum. You need to make sure the cam stays at 0 degrees while idling and also need to decrease the ignition advance in the area just above idle.

kani · Post by **kani** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 1:13 am

Now the car has the factory honda ecu installed. The dealer took the battery off and cold started it and let it run for 15 mins to train the idle. Now it works 100% with the factory ecu.

:?:

KPRO'd ecu runs like %#"?#"%#"?#" under 3000 with the factory map also. Seems to use gas like crazy. I'll see if I can try it with a friends car who also has KPRO.

kani · Post by **kani** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:04 am

Oh well. After running good for a while with the stock ecu, I popped in the kpro ecu again. It works!! The Honda dealer didnt tell me other than "we did the usual check-ups". They did tell me they didnt clean the idle valve since it was hard to access under the throttle body (hah). So I've got no idea what was the problem but it seems to have gone away. DOHH. I hope it doesnt come back.

It still idles a bit wierd when cold (just like it has done always). But I guess this is a tuning issue?? Why dont the wideband lambda kpro ecu's have this problem??

cpl racing · Post by **cpl racing** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:01 pm

cleaning the idle air control valve will sort this. The reason it is sometimes better han other is because the muck that is in there moves around.