Piston Slap: According to the Throttle Position Sensor…
Brian writes:

Sajeev,

This is a weird one, but I figured you would enjoy it. I have owned an ’88 Accord LX-i five speed hatch for a while. One day, driving along, I noticed that it seemed to be coasting easier than normal. When I approached a red light, I found out why: 3,000 rpm was my new idle speed. I stopped, and before I could even think of why this was happening, the idle returned to normal. Once underway, 3,000 rpm was again the new idle speed. Subsequently, I tried many things. This is not related to the brakes, not related to the throttle input, not related to absolutely anything other then wheel speed. In the most stark example, idling on a slight incline, I can just release the parking brake and, once rolling, the idle jumps to 3,000 rpm. Using only the parking brake to stop once again, the idle returns to normal. No CELs or anything else strange happens during this.

I found that it would idle normally if I disconnected the IACV. This worked fine, but when using the A/C it can no longer compensate, so that was not ideal. I also could make it work if I disconnected the speedometer cable, so I did that for a while before really missing my speedometer and cruise control. I tried another way, which was to disconnect the electrical connections between the speedometer and the rest of the gauge cluster. This works, but I get no cruise control, and a CEL only if I coast with no throttle input for too long, which is strange.

I have tried bleeding the IACV, replacing the IACV, replacing and adjusting the throttle position sensor, replacing the entire gauge cluster (which had the same issue, but seemed to change the high idle RPM weirdly enough, but still wonky-high). Also, I did check all grounds and the solder joints in the ECU.

Here is my long standing build/upkeep thread, and here is a terrible video.

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  • Analoggrotto I don't see a red car here, how blazing stupid are you people?
  • Redapple2 Love the wheels
  • Redapple2 Good luck to them. They used to make great cars. 510. 240Z, Sentra SE-R. Maxima. Frontier.
  • Joe65688619 Under Ghosn they went through the same short-term bottom-line thinking that GM did in the 80s/90s, and they have not recovered say, to their heyday in the 50s and 60s in terms of market share and innovation. Poor design decisions (a CVT in their front-wheel drive "4-Door Sports Car", model overlap in a poorly performing segment (they never needed the Altima AND the Maxima...what they needed was one vehicle with different drivetrain, including hybrid, to compete with the Accord/Camry, and decontenting their vehicles: My 2012 QX56 (I know, not a Nissan, but the same holds for the Armada) had power rear windows in the cargo area that could vent, a glass hatch on the back door that could be opened separate from the whole liftgate (in such a tall vehicle, kinda essential if you have it in a garage and want to load the trunk without having to open the garage door to make room for the lift gate), a nice driver's side folding armrest, and a few other quality-of-life details absent from my 2018 QX80. In a competitive market this attention to detai is can be the differentiator that sell cars. Now they are caught in the middle of the market, competing more with Hyundai and Kia and selling discounted vehicles near the same price points, but losing money on them. They invested also invested a lot in niche platforms. The Leaf was one of the first full EVs, but never really evolved. They misjudged the market - luxury EVs are selling, small budget models not so much. Variable compression engines offering little in terms of real-world power or tech, let a lot of complexity that is leading to higher failure rates. Aside from the Z and GT-R (low volume models), not much forced induction (whether your a fan or not, look at what Honda did with the CR-V and Acura RDX - same chassis, slap a turbo on it, make it nicer inside, and now you can sell it as a semi-premium brand with higher markup). That said, I do believe they retain the technical and engineering capability to do far better. About time management realized they need to make smarter investments and understand their markets better.
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Off-road fluff on vehicles that should not be off road needs to die.