Q&A for How to Clean an Idle Air Control Valve in a Honda Accord

If it's a modern vehicle, you can use an OBD2 scanner to check your idle air through scan tools for certain makes and models. You can also try to manually activate it to see how the car reacts—if something is malfunctioning, you can see if it's the valve or something outside the valve that's causing the issue. Sometimes the check engine light will go off, which can also help with the diagnosis. If it's an older vehicle, check the resistance that's going to the idle control valve from the vehicle; if it's outside of normal design numbers/parameters, you can isolate the problem accordingly.

You are probably burning oil. I would recommend taking it to a mechanic. They will tell you what's happening.

Do not adjust idle screw, that is set in the factory and shouldn't need to be adjusted. Fix the problem that is causing rough idle or whatever idle problems you are having. Something is likely broken, malfunctioning, or needs to be cleaned (IACV, vacuum leak, etc.).

You shouldn't adjust the idle screw that is set by the factory on some cars that have the idle screw. The better option would be to fix whatever problem is causing rough idle or the idle problem (clean or buy a new part of whatever is broken or not functioning properly).