Engine Stalls on Acceleration and Idle

[Luger]

Hi guys,

Last week I got my ek fully serviced which included:

Valve clearance setting
Engine oil
Gearbox oil
Oil filter
Fuel filter
Water coolant
Spark plugs

After the service that same day I took the car for a spin with no issues. The next day I took it back to the mechanic as he had to replace the reel cable as the SRS light was on and horn not working. Started the car and idled fine until after like 5min of driving the engine started stalling on acceleration. I started it on gear and on acceleration it stalled again so I said it surely must be because I was very low on fuel as the gauge was indicating below the E red indicator and was only 2min away from gas station so I put the car on idle until I got to the gas station and left it idling until I filled up. I drove off and the stalling stopped on acceleration as the engine had by then warmed up. Engine seemed to be stalling only on acceleration.

Today I decided to go for a ride and engine started fine and idled with no issues until I closed the garage door and drove for 5min until the engine stalled again but this time it stalled when on idle instead of while accelerating like it was happening last week. When engine was on gear and accelerating it drove fine. As soon as I let go the accelerator and put the gear on idle for a few seconds the engine stalls. As soon as the engine warmed up the engine stopped stalling on idle.

I have searched and read all the threads on the forum regarding cold starts and idle issues but I could not find any cases like mine and I'm starting to worry :nerve:

Anyone has ever experienced or knows someone who had such issues following a service as I'm assuming this has something to do with the work done by the mechanic. Any insight here is much appreciated and thank you in advance in having the patience in reading my long post

Cheers

 

[m90polk]

If the problem started after you had the car serviced and was not happening prior to the service then you have figured out the problem, now it is just a process of elimination. I would start by re checking the valve clearance as this is not adjusted correctly it will cause the engine to stall. Makes sense why it goes away when warm the metal expands potentially changing the valve to rocker gap. Hope this helps some

 

[Luger]

If the problem started after you had the car serviced and was not happening prior to the service then you have figured out the problem, now it is just a process of elimination. I would start by re checking the valve clearance as this is not adjusted correctly it will cause the engine to stall. Makes sense why it goes away when warm the metal expands potentially changing the valve to rocker gap. Hope this helps some

Yes to be honest thats my main suspect but the weird thing is that the same day the valve clearance was done i took the car for a ride and had no issues with it. The stalling started the following day but I will still have those checked first thing.

Cheers for the reply mate

 

[Luger]

Ok so after 2 weeks of trial and error, problem was finally sorted today. The mechanic suspected dirty injectors so I chucked in 2 bottles of injector cleaner and after a week the problem still persisted even though it would not stall immediately, the engine would struggle to stay fired up and would occasionally still stall and idle was still horrid.

Next was taking the injectors off and take for cleaning. The injectors needed cleaning 3 times over and one of the injectors was in a real bad state of filth but it was finally sorted so injectors were spotless. Issue still persisted so next up was cleaning the AICV which was filthy too, but issue still persisted even after vacuum checks and the gasket.

Last resort was setting the AICV which apparently has some sort of adjustment setting thingy. I have searched all over this forum and other sites but i have never read of this adjustment screw to set the AICV so i was quite surprised when the mechanic told me this AICV can and has be set. At first the mechanic set is too high and it was up to 2k when idle and hunting badly so with a bit of fiddling here and there with this setting valve the mechanic finally got the engine idle on 1500 when cold, settling slowly down as the engine got warmer to just over 1000 then down to 850. When engine fully warmed and revved, it idles back down for a sec and a half at most on just over 1000 and goes straight down to 850 which i think is the norm.

I hope maybe my experience and sorting this issue helps somebody with the same idling issue as apparently this bad idling and hunting of the engine is quite a hobby on older 90's Honda's

What I'm not too sure about is that sec and a half it stays on just over 1000 and then down normally to 850. Has anyone noticed this behaviour on your ek9 coz lets face it, who the hell keeps an ek9 on idle for too long to admire the rev counter in the first place?

Cheers