89 accord lxi with hard idle when I brake.

Hi. Can someone please help? My accord idles really hard when I brake at a stop sign or stoplight. The car starts to shake violently to the point that I think the car is going to fall apart. I thought that it might be that I need to warm the engine up first, but this is to no avail. It still idles pretty hard despite being warmed up first. Has anyone else experienced this with their accord? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.

Is this something new, or has it always been like that? What year is your car? All four bangers will idle shakey in gear if they are idling too lean, which is common on Accords, in my experience. I used to get that complaint alot. Especially bad with the A/C on. It can usually be tamed with an idle mixture adjustment, unless there is some other issue (vacuum leak, hogged up air filter, bad state of tune, etc)

Let me know what engine and year you are talking about, might be able to help you.

I just saw in the title of your post that you have an '89, that would definitely be one of the ones that were notorious for vibey idle when lean.

This is an aftermarket throttle body, I couldn't find a pic of a stock one. The throttle body is where air enters the motor, and where the throttle cables attach to. You can see it moving when you give it gas. You can see the mixture adjustment screw on the top, just left of center, the brass colored one, on you car it might be slightly recessed in the hole. Start the motor, let it warm up fully, and have someone hold it in gear at idle. Turn the screw out (counterclockwise) slowly, the idle should smooth out as you do. It shouldn't take more than a turn or two, if it does, something else is wrong. At the point where it seems no improvement is felt in idle, turn it back about 1/4 turn and leave it.

http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive/autopartsphotos/compact/4790.jpg

i sometimes have an erratic idle (goes back and forth between ~1200 and 1800). is that what you have (something similar)?