ive been diagnosing my cold idle problem on my 92 se-r 5 speed. ive found that the air regulator is probably the reason for the idle problem. i checked the terminal/plug to the regulator with the key on the on position and i got zero volts. the voltmeter was grounded to the negative battery cable. i believe the power for the regulator is shared off the fuel pump circuit, so i checked that at the fuse box and got battery voltage or about 12 volts. i guess that there is a disconnected or bad ground for the regulator or bad connector. how do i solve this ground problem? where is the ground for this connection?
It will only have voltage for like 5 seconds after you turn the key to on, so make sure you've got a good connection to the harness and have someone else turn the car on while you check it. Also pull the rubber protector back that is on the harness so you can see what wire is in what position on the harness. That drawing I copied from my FSM (Disclaimer for the copyright police: not scanned, I drew it) is incorrect, at least for what I found in my car, it shows the two wires in the wrong positions. The E120/E84 harness connections and the E117/E27 harness connections are on a backet below your air filter box. It's easiest to just remove this bracket. I took my harnesses off the bracket and didn't put the bracket back in, it doesn't do much. Now is your car an auto or a manual? If it's an auto then those harnesses will be different. If you find that it is getting voltage but still has bad cold idle pull the regulator out and there is an adjustment nut on the back of it. loosen this up and slide it so that when you're looking in the hole you see less daylight, rather than more. Then tighten it down. This will make sure the shutter closes all the way when it warms up. Hook it up to 12 volts and let it set for awhile and see if it closes all the way. As you can see in the diagram there are two grounds. These grounds also ground your side markers. I doubt you have a bad ground, either your regulator is kaput, needs adjusted or isn't getting 12 volts.
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Rob '93 SE-R
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It will only have voltage for like 5 seconds after you turn the key to on
that makes sense....rechecked and the regulator does have battery voltage to it! i also checked the resistance of the regulator itself at room temp and im getting ~70-71 ohms. i opened it up to check for binding or to see if it was stuck....and it seems to move freely. the shutter is open a little at room temp, about 0.045in. when its cold, shouldnt it be open all the way? i completely bypassed the regulator by connecting both of the vaccuum lines to it to each other and the car idled much better (although a little high +1000rpm) when it was cold. with the regulator connected, the car would not idle at all when it was cold. it would fluctuate, bog, and stumble from 400-800rpm. here's a pic of the regulator, how does it look?
Linear Mode
