so today after starting the car, the idle seemed to be a little on the low side 500 rpm-ish and when i rev the engine, the rpms drop a bit faster than normal. there were no lights on the dash and the fluid levels are all okay. I had to drive home regardless and noticed that when i floor it, the car doesnt make the usual scream when i engage vtec range. The car has been running smooth ever since i got it and it's still on it's original tranny ('99)...but today i dont know what the heck is going on. can anyone shed some light on the situation or have any ideas about a fix?

 

started the car up again, now it seems like it has trouble holding idle. after i rev the engine or shut off the ac, the car sounds/feels like it's going to just die but it doesn't. argh.

 

what did you last do to it before this started- worked on anything
does it FEEL like vtec engages- that push back in the seat feeling?

a 99- hmm how many miles on it? what do the plugs look like?

 

the last thing i did was replace the headers (megan -> XS) but that was a good 2 weeks ago. and it doesn't have that throw your back into the seat feeling anymore. The car has 69k miles on it and has not had any problems before this one.

what i want to address first is the idling issue. it seems like it will stall but it hasn't yet. could it be clogged egr ports or maybe the IACV?

i'll pull the plugs to take a look at them later tonight or tomorrow morning.

 

could be a vacuum leak- thats first source of idle and stalling issues
Need to CAREFULLY recheck the torque on the header bolts- they need to be checked and re-tighten after 500 miles or so.
Thats a source of problems
Look at what you did before tearing other things apart
Should not just suddenly get a plugged iacv, and the egr ports wont make it die
I would look for a vac line near the headers, like that one that goes to the rear of the intake manifold
could have gotten heat damaged after a few weeks

 

listen to the exhaust, does it sound like its sputtering?

 

nope no sputtering. i had just retightened all the header bolts yesterday actually. I started the car again before dinner and the problem seemed to have disappeared. idles fine and vtec is definitely engaging. drove 30 miles and everything seems ok. weird. I'll be sure to check on the vac line near the headers tomorrow morning. thanks for all the input