I have a 1990 Acura Integra that I have been having problems with lately, I was
hoping you could shed some light on the issue for me. It is surging every now
and then when it is sitting and idling. I was driving the other day and my
battery light came on and I had to replace the battery because it
was completely shot. Now that I have new battery in the car it still surges.
I took it in and had an electrical system test done where they hook up a load
to my battery and check the system that way. They told me that it could be the
alternator or it could be a bad electrical connection. I have done some diagnostics
myself and found that sometimes the car runs ok when I disconnect the battery
and other times it dies. Normally when you connect a voltage meter with the vehicle
running you should see 14.4v, when it surges I am seeing anywhere from 14.4 to
14.0v, I don't know if this is a good
indication or not because I don't know if my volt meter can respond as fast as
the surges happen. Have you heard of this problem with this vehicle before? Any
help you can give would help me out tremendously.
Regards,
Nate
Nate,
Alternators should produce voltage between 13.8 to 14.2 volts. Yours
seem to be doing this, so I suspect you don't have a charging problem. If
your battery light is on in the dash, then I'm dead wrong. Fix this problem
first before you proceed further!
As to the surging it could be a vacuum leak or where the car is trying
to
find base "Idle".
If someone has adjusted the base idle speed to compensate for this problem
then I would start there and put it back to where it used to be.
If you have a digital volt ohm meter then I would suggest "back probing"
the O2 sensor to see if it is running rich or lean.
If you don't know what wire to hook up to on the o2 sensor then you may
need to take it to a shop and have them diagnose this problem! Working on
today's cars can be very expensive just changing parts. Have a shop test
these problems and tell them to fix it!
A good shop will be able to fix it and give you a complete price before
they start the work. Of course you will need to pay them for their
knowledge and time. So expect a diagnostic fee, because you get what you
pay for! If they do it for free, then they put no value on their training
and knowledge.
Most erratic idling problems are vacuum leaks or miss-adjustments.
A dead or dying 02 sensor can cause similar conditions. This is why it is
so important to diagnose it correctly.
Thanks for your question!
Best wishes and thanks for the question.
James Morris
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