Hi. I picked up aan 88 Honda Accord LX with just 58k miles on it. It generally looks and runs great.
About a few weeks after I got it, it started to idle high when cold. When I started it up, it would run around 1.5-2k rpm in park and about 1.3-1.75 in neutral or drive. Generally after it warmed up, it would drop down to .75-1k rpm and act normally. It was and still is manageable.
I tried removing the air filter housing and got in there with a can of carb spray and sprayed in and around the carb. It did really seem to help for about 3 weeks. It mostly behaved normally for that time.
It has now returned to its former behavior, though not quite as bad. It rarely get as high as 2k rpm. More like 1.5-1.75. It does seem to take longer, however, for the idle to settle down to normal?.longer drives and longer time. I?ve tried revving the engine to 8k rpm for a minute or so and that seems to help a little bit, but not much. It just seems like it needs to warm up. If I drive it a short distance, park it and then start it again, sometimes it will then idle normally.
I?m planning on spraying it out again, maybe using 2 cans this time. Is this something I need to be worried about and get it checked out by a mechanic right away? Can it be symptomatic of a more serious problem? I?ve been doing a lot of research and I love to figure things out for myself and it would be a fun little project to be able to fix it on my own.
Any suggestions? Should I be looking at another possibility other than the carb? How tough is it to pull out the old carb and put in a rebuilt one? Should I get a new one or rebuilt if I decide to go that route?
Thank you in advance!
Steve, L.A.