1997 Honda Civic Problems starting/idle speeds

Hi –

I’m dreading this upcoming weekend. My car needs both new brakes and the rear bushings need to be replaced, but that’s not the issue. The issue is this:

On startup, the engine (without touching the throttle) will sit for a couple seconds at around 1000-1200 rpms, then rev to between 1700 and 2000 rpms. This is while it is in park. Putting it in gear will only drop it to around 1100-1300 rpms and when I push down on the accelerator, the car will go into a near-stall, then will shoot forward after a couple seconds. I will have to re-start the car two, three, four times to get the engine to not do that, but then the car is idling in gear at 100-300 rpms and threatening to stall, until I'm almost to work (approx. 15 miles and about 45 minutes of drive time, I live in LA), then it will idle at somewhere near normal, around 400. The problem has now progressed to doing it not just in the mornings, but in the afternoons when I leave work. Earlier this year, it didn't do that.

I've tried pumping the gas prior to starting, holding my foot down on the gas while starting, sitting for ten minutes waiting for it to warm up, I've had them look at the spark plugs, the fuel filter was replaced, they've run the computerized diagnositcs and replaced some random valve (which didn't do diddly except blast a hole in my wallet). I’ve also used a fuel additive. I have been told the fuel injectors can use a cleaning, but I'm not so sure that's the issue. Once it's running for a distance, it runs fine but I am slowly growing suspicious of the rpms at speed as well, I think they're starting to run high.

I am very hesitant to take it back to the dealership, but the car needs to be fixed and fixed properly so I don’t keep dumping money onto this problem. It’s already cost me over $500, and I’m expecting this visit to cost me between $700 and $1200.