My festiva wont idle

[Joeyman]

I'm not completely sure that our B3's have an IAC If it did it would be part of the Throttle Body...It may be that brass looking disc thing,(Im Not a Mechanic if you can tell) I'm just throwing out some troubleshooting.

I do know there is a Throttle Position Sensor on the side of the throttle body but I would assume that it wouldn't run very well under any conditions if that was malfunctioning.

I googled it. I know where it is. That is where all the vacuum hoses are going to. Its kinda down off to the side near the intake. Called orielly's can't order the part. Hmmmmm wonder if it just needs to be cleaned.

[Joeyman]

There are, but a lot of the information is very spread out. I can give you the basics. First, have the car completely off.
Open hood.
Under the windshield wiper motor area, there should be a bunch of loose wires with plugs.
Pick the wire that has a single black connector on it.
Put a small nail in this connector so that you have something metal to clamp to.
Plug one end of a jumper cable to the nail
plug other end of jumper cable to your battery ground.
Get in car, turn key to on position (do not start it)
CEL should start blinking. There will be long flashes, then short flashes. Then a long pause. Then it will repeat.
Long flashes = First Digit, short flashes = second digit. For example, 2 long and 5 short = code 25.
I have a picture of what each code means saved somewhere, I will post it on my lunch break.
I can also add images of the connector if you can't find it.
Make sure you disconnect the jumper cable before starting the car again.

thank you I will give this a try tonight. I have to dig up my jumper cable. I know I have one somewhere.

[firebush357]

I looked on Rock Auto and they don't carry it either. So you may need to hit up one of the parts guys on here if that is the code that shows up.

[w4rkry]

I googled it. I know where it is. That is where all the vacuum hoses are going to. Its kinda down off to the side near the intake. Called orielly's can't order the part. Hmmmmm wonder if it just needs to be cleaned.

If that ends up being your problem, you can delete the IAC (Much cheaper than buying one XD). There is a writeup on how to do it from the guy I bought my 2nd Festiva from on here. It runs just fine without it.

[Joeyman]

just scored alligator jumper here at work. I'm armed with a paper clip and the jumper. ON lunch i'm going to give this a try

[w4rkry]

just scored alligator jumper here at work. I'm armed with a paper clip and the jumper. ON lunch i'm going to give this a try

Perfect haha

[ryanprins13]

If your check engine light only coming on when your idle drops super low or does it stay on for a bit? My car does the same thing. When the idle drops super low the cel comes on, goes out when the idle picks back up or i restart the car :p
I have 2 possible causes for mine being bad. More likely one is my intake manifold gasket or plenum gasket leaking. Second is i have a lot of blow by and the oil gets blown out the hose that goes from your valve cover to your intake tubing and gumms up the throttle plate, intake tubing and everything in the intake manifold. Bad idle goes away for a bit when i clean it all with seafoam but comes back


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[Joeyman]

the light comes and goes. comes on when the motor is struggling. I can drive the car on the hiway and it drives like normal but sometimes will feel like its bogging light will come on for a few seconds then goes back to normal. Its at idle where it really has all the problems. I looked into the throttle body last night. it looked ok. wasn't super clean but seemed to be alright with me.

[Joeyman]

here it is. I'm confused as to how to read it...lol

[jawja jim]

Looks to me like you have: 1-VAF code- 8 blinks, 2-coolant temp sensor code- 9 blinks, 3 O2 sensor code- 1 long 7 short.

[Joeyman]

The car is all kinds of screwed up isn't it. well crap.

The VAF is a brand new reman just installed. So I will rule that one out.

[firebush357]

Can you shoot a video of it trying to Idle?

[ryanprins13]

Did you get that cel while it was struggling to idle or when it was at a normal rpm?
When rpm drops too low when its struggling it causes all sorts of sensors to read out of standard range and throw a code, but you dont nessacarily get wats wrong


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[Joeyman]

both

[ryanprins13]

both

I meant the one from when you took the video.
Obd1 has no memory. It doesn't store codes. When the light comes on it has the code, if it goes out its gone.