running on three Cyl when cold

[ARCHINSTL]

btw, what did I manage to poke "right", since the economy light turned red ( cold engine). it's been green all the time, no matter what, ever since I bought her. It get's the readings from the vacuum somewhere I guess.. but where? and where's the wiring connection. I didn't find that out from FSM.

PB, could you take a picture of this 'economy light'? i've never heard of it and wonder what it is. i wonder if it might be some sort of european option we didn't see here.

Yeah I am intrigued by this "economy light" as well.
Peace

VWs of the '80s +/- in the USA had that light; I recall car testers laughing at it. Possibly other cars had that "feature" as well back then.
My beloved '86 626 had a similar feature, but it was called a "shiftup" light; it told you when to shift for the best economy, based on current gear selection, road speed and engine RPM. The shift points were ridiculously low which, if followed religiously, would result in lugging the engine.
I think it was electrically operated through the primitive computer.
Useless.
Tom M.

[dlb]

My beloved '86 626 had a similar feature, but it was called a "shiftup" light; it told you when to shift for the best economy, based on current gear selection, road speed and engine RPM. The shift points were ridiculously low which, if followed religiously, would result in lugging the engine.
I think it was electrically operated through the primitive computer.
Useless.
Tom M.

our civic has this shift up light and i agree, shifting according to the light is madness. we can be cruising at 1200 rpm in 4th gear and it will say to shift up.

[Polar Bear]

Thanks for the tips guys, I'll check and re-check some more. Cleaning the connections etc didn't help.No visible play on the distributor shaft. Timing seems to be okay.

I did open the carb up today, and it was filthy to say the least.. from the top, throaths looked clean, but after opening it I found out that there was sand among other gunk inside the carbs... great. Also part of the gasket was rotten. the hunt for the fault continues. As Larry succested, I'll check the choke and all the things related to that too.
The economy light is located under the tachometer, it's just a small light that says "economy". Like said, it's been green forever, and now it's red. I remember in the 90's my friend had a Mitsubishi Galant, it had the same kind of bullcr*p light...I don't want to tear up the dash to get to the light, but pretty soon I'll have to, if I don't find the connection to it, so I can turn it off. Didn't have the camera handy when I was in the carage. Sorry, we'll see if I remember next time