I'm getting fuel cover protector put on tommorrow, the dealer is taking care of the that free of charge. Plus, I told them about my hesistation when I fire up my car in the morning. When I step on the accelerator my car spits and sputters but after 15 seconds its fine. Service manager say its my "throttle body" staying open for an extended period of time. The solution is to clean it out which costs about 80 dollars. Is this something I can take care of myself? I have a 2k1 AE please offer suggestions

 

Are you still within warranty? If so, I'd argue that it should be covered (i.e. "this is supposed to WORK for 36k miles...")

 

Nope, I'm past the warranty, I have 42k miles on my car.

 

I would argue that this is powertrain related and should be covered for 60K.

 

Good point. Try this, and don't let them work you with "normal wear and tear"; whether or not that's what the warranty really says (I haven't looked), from what I can tell most of the non-obvious warranty work comes down to what the dealer is willing to do / is talked into doing.