92 Accord Sputtering Problem

[mjlong]

I have a 92 Honda Accord EX, 5 speed manual transmission. The car sputters and hesitates, but it only does it intermittently, not all the time. I can drive the car for days without experiencing the problem, and then all of the sudden it starts again. Also, it only does this in the lower gears; it drives fine over 50 MPH. The problem tends to manifest itself more on damp rainy days than on clear dry days. I have taken the car to the Honda dealer about 4 times, but every time they test drive it, it won’t display the problem, so all they can do is speculate as to what’s wrong based on my verbal description of the problem. This is all very frustrating, especially when it starts sputtering again as soon as I get it back from the dealer. The dealer ran electrical tests and checked the fuel lines and everything was OK. They also looked under the distributor cap and the part under the rotor was very rusty (original part). They concluded that was the problem, so they replaced the distributor cap, rotor, the part under the rotor, and the spark plugs, and as soon as I drove the car off the parking lot, it began sputtering again. However, since I’ve had these repairs, the car is sputtering less, and when it does, it sputters only very briefly (just for a few seconds) and then it’s OK again. But the problem is still there. Any ideas? Please help.

P.S. I’ve read Thread No. 1028 which recommended an idle air control valve (IACV). Could that be the solution?

[lorunner]

what kind of wires are on it? They could be arching if they are aftermarket especially when they are damp.

[mjlong]

The wires have also been replaced by the Honda dealer, so presumably they are Honda wires. Incidentally, when I referred to the part under the distributor cap, I was actually referring to the distributor itself which was replaced.