92 Accord stalls+

I bought her for 900 two months ago.
She recently started to stall intermittantly at stops, and to a lesser
extent when slowing to under 20 for turns, merges. She also has had an up
and down(900rpm to 2000rpm)idle speed every once in a while, and twice the
rpms have dropped close to or to 0 while going about 70 on the interstate,
but she did not cut off. When she has stalled out has started right back
until today when she would not turn over for a few minutes, but she did
come back after 10 min.

Any ideas other than a tune up and mechanic's hands on assessment?

Thanks, Keith

 

Best guess: Ignition coil, especially if she stalls only
after twenty minutes or so of driving. Old, failing coils
become persnickety after warmup.

Other causes:
http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/faq.html#startrun

Consider a complete tuneup of this car, including changing
out the coolant, tranny fluid, etc., since you don't know
exactly where it is in its maintenance schedule.

Know when the timing belt is due?

 

I would look for an (intermittent) vacuum leak..

JT

 

Ordinarily I would echo Elle here in suspecting your coil, but you report
the tach dropping to zero. When the tach drops to zero, you've lost the
igniter signal, meaning your igniter's probably on its way out.

Concerning the surging idle, that's a big vacuum leak. Usually it's the
Fast Idle Thermo Valve (under the throttle body). It's sticking open when
it shouldn't.

 

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Low coolant (air in system) can cause screwy idle and stalling once you
warm up.

'Curly'