Custom tail lights and a idling issue. Thanks!

Hi Everyone,

Long time reader, first time poster.

I have a 89 Honda Civic DX Sedan that I purchased off a friend for $100.00 and it has 170,000 miles on it. I have been slowly repairing it, it did run, just a lil banged up, plus I put a new clutch on.

When it idles, it tends to go up and down, and the if I "kick" the gas, it will idle down. I have replaced the following:

Plugs, wires, distributor cap, fuel filter, air filter, battery, alternator, (battery issue). So I can not figure out what the cause of the idle issue is. It is after I running the car for a while, say driving 10 miles, then when stopped, it goes up and down up and down, then once "kicked" it idles fine, until I drive again.

Also, does any one know if I can get "Euro" style tail lights for this vehicle. My plan is to have it repainted, the dings taken out and put new wheels on it. From what I read, I can get, (If I want) another 200,000 miles or so out of this car. The engine compression test are fine (2 pounds out of norm on each cylinder) - so I figured, why not?

Thanks in advance!

For your idling problem I'm not sure what it would be i've never heard of that before, but it might have to do with your intake manifold, like the throttle body is loose or whatnot, but not really sure. As far as tailights go on eBay for the best price, they got every kind you can ever want for like $100 shipped...Hope this helped

check to make sure that all of your vacume lines are in good condition, i had a prob like that and it was a cracked vacume hose and when i replaced it, i ran fine, but i also heard that if you reset the ecu by unpluging the postive side of the battery for 10 min, it might clear it up if its not a vacume line. Spray some carb cleaner on your vacume lines and if the idel goes up or the car dies, you found where the crack is.

Try cleaning out your IACV with carb cleaner, that fixed it for me. It's actually a really common 4th gen problem. if you need to know where the iacv is exactly on the intake manifold i think 4th gen civic has diagrams on the site.

Try cleaning out your IACV with carb cleaner, that fixed it for me. It's actually a really common 4th gen problem. if you need to know where the iacv is exactly on the intake manifold i think 4th gen civic has diagrams on the site.


Great thanks everyone! I will look for the IACV.

Still cannot find any tail lights though!

there are no aftermarket taillights for our sedans. They used to have all clear lights, but they quit selling them months ago sadly :(

cant find they on ebay anymore ice x??

you see the all clears on there like once or twice a year....

someone needs to make some custom lights for our sedans, they'd sell like crazy!

someone needs to make some custom lights for our sedans, they'd sell like crazy!

not as much as someone would hope, our cars arent that popular

i have the same exact car (89 civic crx dx) and have no problem finding Euro tail lights on e bay (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7949391401&category=33716)
just typed in 88-91 civic and picked through what was there, lots to choose from

you will find lights for the "crx" and "hatchback" but you will not find them for the sedan - the other types of lights won't fit, i wish they didz! Be careful when you buy stuff online to make sure it's for the sedan and not the crx or hb

omg so so sorry, i seen dx, and thought of my car, the dx 3 door hatch that those lights fit on, shutting up right... now

take off the cap and check the distributor shaft for any play. if the bearing is going bad it can throw the timing slightly or cause weak spark/bad idle. it goes away when the engine is revved. mine did that at about 170k.

$100 you got a good deal on that thing :) any pics?