I have an 89 civic DX automatic, all stock. When I am at a complete stop all I have to do is let my foot off of the brake peddle and the car goes up to 10 mph. Normally a car would just sit there and idle until you apply a little gas. What do you think that the problem is?

 

automatics go foward unless you step on the brakes.

 

Its always been like that... h:

 

aparantly not evenone knew that :dunno:

 

whats your idle rpm in neutral?

 

Most older cars had automatics that would allow the car to creep along (usually 4-8 mpg) unless you had your foot on the brake. After many accidents by inattentive drivers leaving their car in gear and getting out (people are stupid and we must them and ourselves from the stupidity), most make cars now that have eliminated idle speed meaning you have to push the gas to move the car (most of these are minivans, etc.).

As Jani noted if your idle is too high (should be around 600-900 rpm when warm) your idle speed will be faster.

 

I don't have an RPM guage. As jaje stated it will only let me go up to 10 mph then drops to about 6mph then goes back up to 10 mph. Must be normal. It just feels like the car wants to take off once I take my foot off the brake. But as mentioned, it never goes above 10 mph.

 

keep your foot on the brake or put it in park/neutral. problem solved. :dunno:

 

i agree, idle might be a little high. the stall speed of the converter was probably pretty low in that year.

 

Only problem I hear in your scenario is that you have hardly any friction in your wheel bearings and brakes when they're not applied...

Which isn't really a problem