Posts Tagged ‘3rd gen’
how to properly adjust the idle and ignition on a 3rd gen honda prelude
proper procedure to set the idle and ignition timing:
-warm the car up to normal temp by driving around for 10 minutes or so.
-turn the car off. jumper the service connector on the left side of the vacuum box on the firewall (yellow rubber boot) by inserting a wire or paperclip into both terminals of the plug
-restart the car. check the CEL, it should be on solid. if its flashing, you have codes stored. if the cel is not solid or flashing, then the jumper in the service connector is not making a good enough connection. fix it lol
-unplug the eacv (idle valve, aka electronic air control valve, aka iacv idle air control valve, front side of the plenum). the cel should now be blinking a code 14.
-if the car stalls, turn the idle screw out 1 full turn.
-turn the idle screw in and out however you need to turn it to get the idle to sit at about 650-700rpms. the idle screw is a flathead screw in the top of the throttle body. turning the screw in lowers idle, out raises idle.
-here is where you would check/adjust ignition timing at the distributor with a timing light if you so desire or need to. connect the pos and neg terminals of the timing light to the battery, and put the pickup lead on either cyl 1 or 4.
-point the timing light at the hole in the tranny bell housing next to the engine stamp, and you should see the timing marks on the flywheel. you want the middle of the 3 timing marks to be lined up with the pointer.
-if the middle mark of the group of 3 marks is not lined up with the pointer, loosen the distributor bolts and turn it ever so slightly each time and check the marks with the light again until the middle mark does line up with the pointer. once it does, tighten ONE distributor bolt. then check marks again to make sure it hasnt moved. keep adjusting until after one bolt is tight, the middle mark is lined up perfectly with the pointer. then tighten the other 2 dist bolts.
-plug the eacv back in, remove jumper wire from service connector, turn off the car and remove the keys from the ignition.
-reset the ecu by removing the clock fuse for a minute or so. replace fuse and start car and enjoy the new normal idle
(4 out of 5)