"my 1990 honda civic check engine light just came on when i was driving and started to sputter with at times it barely moving then would kick in and drive normal. i got the car home and turned it off then re started it and the idle was fast around 1800 rpms then dropped down to 1000

SOURCE: 93 honda civic ex sputtered and died while driving

Is there any white smoke coming out the exhaust? Sounds like the same problem my friend had when he warped his head on his 91 civic. Any overheating at all? Otherwise another guess would be maybe a bad catalitic converter that clogged up. Hope this helps any, good luck

SOURCE: RPM stays at 1500 instead of 1000 and check eng lght stays on

changing the spark plug will not gonna change anything good in the system if i were you,you might check your idle air control valve if functioning right or check you wires goes to it their are possibilities that it might burned up or you might wanna pull out the idle air solenoid they usually tend to have carbon in it cleaning it may resolve the problem sometimes..

SOURCE: 2003 Honda Civic runs hot when idling.

Check the cooling fan switch. It appears your auxiliary electric cooling fan isn't going on when at idle. and engine temp increases. While you are driving, air is being rammed thru your radiator as you cruise along, so it isn't overheating, at idle, that isn't happening, and the fan should go on as the temp goes up. When the ac is switched on, the fan is being signaled to operate due to the heavy ac load on the cooling system.

SOURCE: 1990 Honda Civic will not start

Most of the handas have a pick up inside the distributor behind the rotor button take off the black cover inside the distributor and two screws hold it on with two wires on it. If that go's bad your car will not start i would start there

SOURCE: 1990 Honda accord sputters when idling and accelerating

Throttle body maybe but why the exhaust manifold. Sounds like plugs or wires or coil pack.