do you take apart he whole throttle body?

 

No, you can remove the intake piping and open the throttle plate to spray in the cleaner. Use a toothbrush to scrub.

 

do i have to be carefully not to get the cleaner into the engine

 

i just cleaned my TB without removing it, and i'm pretty sure the gunk i loosened only moved a few inches downstream and temporarily clogged my idle air control valve. after daniel b martin brought that posibility to my attention (thanks again daniel) i took the iacv housing off and cleaned that out & now i'm good to go. maybe it's better to take the TB out of the car before you clean it? i only know what happened to me, i'm no expert. good luck either way.
maury

 

I prefer having the cleaner go through the engine (it's not a problem) since it can clean out the carbon deposits on the intake and exhaust valves.

 

what kind of cleaner is recommended for this procedure (that will not adversely impact the engine)??

 

your local parts store will have throttle body or air intake cleaner made specifically for this purpose

 

thanks, I'll check it out. my car has over 100K and I've never cleaned the TB. sometimes when I accelerate quickly, the car is a bit jerky (not a lot, but it could be smoother) so i hope this will help.

 

you might need more than one toothbrush

 

I cleaned my TB by just removing the intake hose. I used some Valvoline synthetic TB cleaner, and it just dissolves the gunk like that! Yeah you may need more than one toothbrush, and plenty of lint free shop rags. It wasn't too dirty in there, but enough to turn the toothbrush head black when I was done.

Didn't notice any significant difference after cleaning, but it does give me peace of mind knowing the TB is cleaner.

 

Gumout, CRC, Valvoline, etc.. just make sure you get intake throttle body cleaner and not carb cleaner. The Valvoline has the spray tube attached; the other two do not. If you get the other two, make sure you hold on to the red plastic tube so that it doesn't shoot into the manifold.

 

run the engine, and spray cleaner into TB while working the idle.
this will clean intake runners too.
-spray little at a time
-be careful no dirt gets into engine.
cheap cleaners work fine.

 

my car runs soooo much better now. Feels like i gained 20 extra horses.

 

did you spray the cleaner into the TB??

 

I'd be suprised the the car can stay idle with the air intake tract off the throttle body. Most cars will stall.

 

What all do you have disconnect in order to get to the throttle body. There is a lot of ribbed plastic tubing. Can you clean these too or just the TB. Any Help .

 

my car ran with the intake removed. Rough, but it ran. Set off a ecu code too.

 

i removed the piping around my throttle body and my throttle body was very clean--nearly spotless. i'm a bit shock since i've never cleaned my tb before, and that i wasted money on tb cleaner...

 

did you attempt to open the butterfly valve and look BEHIND that? thats where its dirty...almost all are spotless from the front side. i sprayed with the engine revving since it was stalling at idle with the hose off...

 

Phuong,

You said "just make sure you get intake throttle body cleaner and not carb cleaner". I was told my a neighbor "mechanic" that they are esentially the same thing. What will happen if carb cleaner is used.

Thanks
95max

 

Modern day fuel injected vehicles that use MAF or MAP have a special coating/lining on the throttle body. If you use a carb cleaner you can possibly ruin this coating. They both break down carbon deposits so yes, they do the same job but the "ingredients" of the solvent is not the same.

 

Phuong,

But the MAF is upstream from the TB. The reason I an asking is that I did use the carb cleaner (on his ok...I am just a home mechanic) and now the car idles funny. When you stop the car put it in park the rpms go from 700-750ish to 1000 then down to 900. If you let the car idle in park the rpms will slowly fall to 700 then come instantly back to 1000 and the process starts over again. Also at cold start the car idles at 1500. Any thoughts where to look to solve the problem.

Thanks,
95max

 

i did not try this. i haven't a TB cleaning before, so i need to gather more details to see if I want to bother trying it myself or not.

thanks for the help though.

 

Ditto... my '97 doesn't idle at 1500 on cold starts, but the idle is right below 1000 did i screw something up?!

 

on a cold start (after sitting for 8 hours or somehting like that) my car always has idled at 1500 for a few mins until the rpms settle down below 1000. i am very sure this is normal. if you're idling below 1000 on a cold startup, i would probably guess that there is something wrong.

 

ur right, it idles @ 1500 on cold start ups and then drops to about 1000 after about a minute or two... did i screw something up?

 

Interesting. I cleaned my tb by removing it. Everything went fine. I reinstalled it and the car ran great. The idle was right around 700 rpm after warm up. After a few more start ups over the next few days my idle now rests at around 900 rmp when warm. I am going to check the iacv as well as the fast idle control solenoids for for the ps and ac. Anyone found a fix for this?

 

Unplug the negative terminal on the battery for 1+ hour and reset the ECU; if this doesn't make the idle return to normal, you might have to pull the hosing off the idle air control unit and spray in the cleaner to break up any carbon deposits that may cause the valve to stick.

1500 rpm @ cold startup is normal. the auxiliary air control valve directs extra air during startup. as the temp increases, the valve starts to close. Once closed, the idle is normal again.

 

I will try that thanks.

 

I think we need to be clear of what type of cleaner to use and not to use. There are a lot of cans that read "Throttle Body Cleaner" but if I am not mistaken, this is different than the "for fuel injection" type? If this is correct, what are the difference between the carborator cleaner and "Throttle Body Cleaner"? Someone please shed some light on this for me.

~magic_max
'96SE

 

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