I bought a new Honda HRX HXA in May 2009 and it has surge problem on idle. It dies on slow idle. I paid $760 and I don't want my Yardmachine-owning neighbor to give me that look. I took it to the dealer, who, of course blamed my "old gas". He cleaned the carb, and charged me $65 - saying that Honda doesn't cover bad gas ! I took it home, same thing happened again. I called Honda customer service, they played the same "bad gas" line again. I asked them is that a lawn mower or a NASA rocket that is so sensitive to gas. ANyway, I took it back to the dealer. He said he found some "gunk" in the fuel tank (remember he put the fuel after the first clean up). He claims it is running fine now. Before I go pick up, I need to be sure that the problem will be fixed. What tests should I do at the dealer before I bring back mower to be sure the problem is fixed ?

Hi Guys Further update, IÂve had another hour with the mower this evening. Before attempting the cam cover removal I thought IÂd check the ignition timing. To do this I removed the red plastic cowling removed the plug and turned the engine by hand to TDC,inserted a thin metal rod to touch the top of the piston, and turned the engine to measure the down stroke (I make it approx 55mm). This gives 55mm X 2 =110 mm for the total down and upstroke of the piston, this is achieved in 360 degrees rotation of the crank. So a bit of maths (please correct me if IÂm wrong on this one) 360 degree of crank is 110mm piston movement 1 degree of crank = 110/360 piston movement =0.3mm piston movement 10 degree of crank = 110/360 x10 piston movement =3mm piston movement. ( I took 10 degrees as an optimum ignition timing for an engine). I marked a position on the started ring with fluorescent paint and marked TDC and 10 degrees before TCD and 10 degrees after TDC on the red plastic cowling adjacent to one of the slots in the cowling so I could strobe through it to the starter ring fluorescent mark. Re-attached the cowling connected the strobe and the engine ran with the timing showing about 10 degrees BTDC on this crude measurement. Increasing the engine speed did not alter the timing after the usual 20 seconds at about 2,000 - 2500 RPM the fault reoccurred but the ignition timing stayed constant until the engine stopped. I think this has eliminated ignition problems. Have I missed anything before removing the cam cover ? Cheers Pete

Cjheck, sorry, I forgot your original question. If the a/c isn't coming on at all (compressor does not start when you turn the a/c on), then you could have a bad switch or you could be low on refrigerant. (The system won't start if the refrigerant is too low.) You don't need to go to the dealer, but you do need a shop that regularly works on a/c systems. Check your local yellow pages. The price to fix is hard to estimate without knowing what's wrong. If it's just low on refrigerant, it'll need to be leak tested, and any leaks will need to be fixed, and then it'll have to be recharged. Ask the shop to diagnose the problem and provide you with a written estimate before making repairs. Assuming the compressor itself isn't bad and there aren't any other major problems, this shouldn't be extremely expensive; hopefully it won't be out of the $100 to $150 range.

If the ERG valve is stuck and/or the ports clogged, remeding these maladies may solve the problem. However, after you clean everything up, check out the ERG for operation. If does not operate, it may have failed or there is a problem in the control feeds to the valve. Recirculating exhaust gas back into the intake mixture lowers the combustion temperature, hence reduces NOX. Sadly, it also reduces efficiency a bit.