I decided to do my throttle body today. Took everything apart and cleaned it according to the directions on motorvate.ca
The black coming out of it was never ending. My max has 180k on it and I doubt it has ever been done (I just bought it).
Couple of quick ?'s...
1. Although the black has pretty much stopped coming out and the cloth is now coming out clean, if I stick it up pretty far by wrapping the towel in something then I could continue to still get black out. It's actually thick black stuff crud just on the very tip of the towel. I don't know that I could ever get it all. I generally got everything off the butterfly plate (i assume thats what opens and closes) and everything immediately after that up into the TB. If I reach there is more but I fear I am just pushing crud around up there once I get far enough. Should be spraying more? I'm afraid of spraying too much.

2. I don't remember where I saw it but I remember other threads of people saying something else should also be cleaned out when you are doing the throttle body but don't remember what, some even said it was more important. Maybe the Idle Air Control Valve (IACV)? Not sure. Not even sure where that is. Just someone please confirm what else I should be doing while its still all apart and if theres a link to more info on it, great!


While everything was apart, changing the fuel filter was a cake walk (5 minutes) and I also changed the engine coolant temperature sensor which I have a check engine code for currently. Hopefully that will solve it but won't know until I button everything up. Although still tight, it was much easier getting it out with everything apart above it.

Again, its still apart and I'm in no rush to put it together so I'll wait for replies (sunday/monday)
Chris

 

Whats Up? Usually when you clean a throttle body you clean as far in as the throttle plate. You can go as far down the intake as you can reach and still pull out black carbon. As long as there's no carbon around the throttle plate and Idle Air Control opening ( a small hole in the throttle bore) you should be o.k. You can clean the Idle air control but that usually wont make any differance unless it is totally clogged with carbon. I'm a Nissan tech and do these everyday, we only clean right inside the throttle bore. While you're in there clean youre mass air flow meter with some carb spray. Youre car might run a little better!

 

The other thing people clean while doing their TB is the IACV. It is to the right (firewall side) of the TB, and has a couple of electrical connectors around it. You should be able to see how to take it off just by looking at it. Isn't hard to do, just take your time. You clean it with the same TB cleaner you already used. Been awhile since I've done mine, so I can't tell you exactly how to do it without looking at mine. I seem to remember 3 phillips head screws, but could be thinking of something else.

One way some people finish their TB cleaning (for the deeper parts) is to put everything back together. Then loosen the black accordion style hose going to the TB just enough to slip the red straw of the TB cleaner in, idle the car (make sure your MAF sensor is plugged in), and spray the cleaner into the TB. You'll need to blip the throttle to keep it from stalling. Doing this will clean the deeper parts of your intake you are having problems getting to. Watch the black smoke come out your exhaust! You may want to change the oil after doing this, as you could very well break off "chunks" or slivers of carbon and other contaminants, which could work their way in to your oil. Then they could possibly slough off some of the metals inside your engine, causing premature wear. This is just speculation from another website where a couple of us had questions about used oil analysis results. But it seems to be a pretty good explanation of our abnormal results.
Or, if you're really bored like I was one day, you could remove your entire upper intake manifold for a really good cleaning. It isn't too hard, just time consuming. Mine took about 4 hours start to finish, but it was spotless when done!

Dave

 

Thanks nistech414 and dave,

nistech414..
guess i was going a little far up there! hope i didnt screw anything up. we'll see when i try to start it tomorrow.

Dave..
Actually I'm pretty sure I need to change the upper intake manifold gasket because I have some black on the manifold at the right end coming out from around the gasket area. Its 3rd on the list after this. I have to do a timing tensioner, front driver side axle (bad CV joint), and then the gasket. So I'm glad you had it apart to clean without much issue other than it taking a lot of time which I had figured.

This is my $800 Maxima I just got and am trying to do everything myself.
The list may continue to grow but thats what I have identified so far.
You can see it at:
www.mywirelessdeals.com/maxima1.jpg

Chris

 

hey nistech, how much do you guys charge to clean out the throttle body and does it include cleaning out other areas of the engine as well?

 

charge? do it yourself...

 

Dude you got that for 8oo bucks??? Now thats a deal

 

Decided to do my PVC this morning while everything was apart to. What a PAIN in the *ss that was! For a little bugger that could not have been tougher to get out. I guess on the bright side the old one was in pretty bad shape. I could still hear it rattle a little but hardly. It was pretty clogged.

 

Buttoned it up today, all set!
Started right up on the first crank and man its idling smooth now! Big difference. Before the idle would jump around hunting for something and sometimes even stall out. Not anymore. 1200 rpm or so on start up and settled down to 700 or so.
I ended up cleaning the MAF buy not the IACV.
Since I also did the fuel filter and pvc valve its hard to say what helped the most but I'm thinking it was the throttle body.

 

good job buddy!i cleaned my TB today too and boy...was it a mess in there!it wasnt hard at all;ill say about a 30 min job?i tried to reach as far as i could to the intake manifold.and like you,i was kinda afraid of dumping all those carbon back inside the engine;but the cleaner that i used melted the carbon real good and oozed them all inside the manifold.i guess its inevitable.after cleaning the TB and the opening of the intake manifold,i started out the car and i felt the engine choke for a lil bit(probly cause of all the TB cleaner that went in).didnt worry at all cause after couple minutes of idling,engine felt a lil smoother.the max is pulling a bit harder now but not as hard as i expected(it doesnt push your head back to the headrest when you go WOT from a dead stop).that mainly made me think that i actually missed to clean a few more areas of the car.i didnt get to change the fuel filter either coz i didnt have a replacement.i still have to drive a stock maxima that will pull a lot harder than mine just so i would a have a feel on how a maxima should really drive if its bone stock.


hey chris,where did you get directions in cleaning your MAF?

 

i dont mean to post ***** but a few related questions.would changing the fuel filter and pcv make a difference in the performance?

 

no real directions, just went on most peoples advice to spray it with the tb cleaner. so while everything was apart i just sprayed the sensor which you can see when you look up inside of there. i didnt try to scrub it with anything, just sprayed it a bit a couple times and let it dry.

i'm no expert but by reading old posts it appears the pvc and gas filter could possibly help some things. one person said his car didn't shift right (auto) until after he changed the pvc. they should both be changed regardless if they haven't been done in a while. beware, the pvc sucks to do.

 

cool!so just spray the MAF with the TB cleaner huh?uhmm..wait...the outside or the inside?u mean those 2 filaments inside the tube right.damn!im such a LOL!

i'm no expert but by reading old posts it appears the pvc and gas filter could possibly help some things. one person said his car didn't shift right (auto) until after he changed the pvc. they should both be changed regardless if they haven't been done in a while. beware, the pvc sucks to do.[/QUOTE]

ill do my fuel filter together with the PVC and ATF on sunday.ill post on how it went.

 

yeah, i just sprayed the element going across the middle, not the one off to the side (forget what that was). good luck with it all. are you changing the filter when you do the ATF? i need to do that too and was always under the impression you should change the filter when you do it.

by the way, when i did my pvc and finally got it out it went flying and fell down into the dark caverns of the engine and i couldn't get my hand down there. after 1/2 hour of trying i finally took a stick and wrapped some duct tape on the end sticky side out. i was then able to snag it with my little magyver tool so i cold inspect it. i then managed to drop the new one down in the same spot when putting it in! so i got to use my little invention twice in one job.

chris