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here's how to really clean a throttle body

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Old Apr 19, 2004 | 04:43 PM
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here's how to really clean a throttle body

i have cleaned my throttle body a few times and could tell a diffirence afterwards. but three things always bothered me and if you have even cleaned it, you will know what i mean.
1. you cant really clean the lip where the flap meets the throttle body when it is closed all the way.
2. you cant clean the back of the flap very well.
3. you cant clean much past the flap.

now if the frost side is that dirty i wonder how dirty the back part is?

well i took it all apart to find out.
GOOD GOD was it dirty!!! thick tar like stuff. i couldnt even see the metal!!!!
so i cleaned the back of the flap, the back part of the throttle body, and as far as i could reach inside the intake manifold. well now i know for a fact that the whole intake manifold is that bad!!!!! now ill have to take that off and clean it.

here are the picture so you can see how dirty is was

here is the outside part that we all clean


now the new stuff!!

BEFORE
back of throttle body


where throttle body connects to intake manifold (NASTY)
Old Apr 19, 2004 | 04:44 PM
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AFTER
back of throttle body


where throttle body connects to intake manifold


this is the towel that i used. you can see how much crap came off and thats just the back of trottle body and an inch inside the intake manifold
Old Apr 19, 2004 | 04:48 PM
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wow thats alot of junk. i need to do that to my car. how long did it take you?
Old Apr 19, 2004 | 05:25 PM
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How much of a difference is it in terms of what after cleaning it?
Old Apr 19, 2004 | 05:27 PM
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Originally Posted by Gsilk
wow thats alot of junk. i need to do that to my car. how long did it take you?
took me about an hour
Old Apr 19, 2004 | 05:33 PM
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Originally Posted by FanaticMadMax
How much of a difference is it in terms of what after cleaning it?
i noticed alot bigger diffirence then when i just cleaned the outside.
throttle response is ALOT better, no hesitation.
even sitting in park, when i give it gas, it revs up quicker.
when driving it...... it takes off!!!
drives better than it ever has (well at least since i have been her daddy, a little over a year)
Old Apr 19, 2004 | 06:41 PM
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hmm.. i should try this. However, I usually get most of the back cause I just open up the tb flap manually by pulling back the throttle cable
Old Apr 19, 2004 | 07:08 PM
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did you use any TB cleaner or something? what kind?

good job man!
Old Apr 19, 2004 | 07:23 PM
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Originally Posted by soonerfan
took me about an hour
let us know how how taking the manifold off goes. i have heard from a few people that have gotten pretty in depth with both the 3.0 & 3.5, that the manifold is a real pain to remove. supposedly the 3.5 is much easier. this is just second hand info but they said it is a pain due to the amount of other things that have to be removed in order to do it. edit-i assume there is a gasket between the tb and mounting area on the IM and were you able to reuse it?
Old Apr 19, 2004 | 07:53 PM
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Very interesting, is it possible for you to do a mini writeup on this with pictures?
Old Apr 19, 2004 | 07:55 PM
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Very interested in the writeup also.
Old Apr 19, 2004 | 08:07 PM
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if you want a existing write up already its at www.motorvate.ca
Old Apr 19, 2004 | 10:32 PM
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Originally Posted by Larrio
if you want a existing write up already its at www.motorvate.ca
Their talking about a write-up for talking off the throttle body of the intake manifold.
Old Apr 20, 2004 | 03:37 AM
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Originally Posted by carabuser
did you use any TB cleaner or something? what kind?

good job man!
i used Gunk throttle body cleaner
Old Apr 20, 2004 | 03:38 AM
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Originally Posted by ICULookN
Very interesting, is it possible for you to do a mini writeup on this with pictures?
i will do a writeup on this tonight.

and one for the intake manifold when i do it.
Old Apr 20, 2004 | 04:51 AM
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Nice! I had a ton of crap just on the front of mine. I used an old tooth brush to scrub the plate and the metal surface as far back as I could reach.

My throttle response is like new. Even the little "jerk" that is felt by the TBW system is back.
Old Apr 20, 2004 | 06:52 AM
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i realy need to do this tonight, im changing my oil tommorow when i get off of work
Old Apr 20, 2004 | 09:07 AM
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can you also include the torque values for the bolts connecting the throttle body to the manifold in your write up?
Old Apr 20, 2004 | 09:12 AM
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Originally Posted by cory
can you also include the torque values for the bolts connecting the throttle body to the manifold in your write up?
umm.....tight but not to tight since the manifold is plastic
ill look in the service manual and include those
Old Apr 20, 2004 | 12:33 PM
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Has anyone tried using a total intake cleaning product like this one:

http://www.amsoil.com/products/apf.html

(note: I have this bottle and have not used it to chean the whole intake systems because it has a note in it that it may be harmful to plastics and the 2K-2K1 intake manifold is plastic so I was afraid to try it until I did some more research)

but the general idea of this thing is that you spray it into the intake system.

The way I heard it was done is you put a T on one of the vaqum lines connected to the TB and spray it in there with the engine running, the foam/cleaner is succed in through the intake manifold and cleans all the gunk off which is then burned by the engine (the car will spew black smoke while you are doing this).

The other option is to spray it into or after the air filter (I think that's what the instructions on the bottle say to do) but I'm not sure whether the MAF will like being hosed with an intake degreaser.
Old Apr 20, 2004 | 02:22 PM
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Any pinging also?

Originally Posted by soonerfan
i noticed alot bigger diffirence then when i just cleaned the outside.
throttle response is ALOT better, no hesitation.
even sitting in park, when i give it gas, it revs up quicker.
when driving it...... it takes off!!!
drives better than it ever has (well at least since i have been her daddy, a little over a year)
Before you cleaned it, along with the hesitation did you experience pinging (or clicking noise from inside the car)? This is happening with mine when upshifting under 3K, then opening the throttle, i.e. on some onramps. But happens only intermittently, mostly at half tank or at low level, though.
Old Apr 20, 2004 | 05:24 PM
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bump for write-up!


~limsandy
Old Apr 20, 2004 | 05:55 PM
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There's only 4 screws that are holding the throttle body to the intake manifold. I just unscrewed them, pulled the throttle body back and cleaned it and cleaned inside the intake manifold. I also unhooked the cables that open the flap inside the throttle body.
Old Apr 20, 2004 | 07:11 PM
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Originally Posted by Trance Artur
There's only 4 screws that are holding the throttle body to the intake manifold. I just unscrewed them, pulled the throttle body back and cleaned it and cleaned inside the intake manifold. I also unhooked the cables that open the flap inside the throttle body.
im going on vacation in the morning and wont be able to do a write up. sorry guys.
but i was pretty much gonna say what Trance Artur said.
remove four screws, two wire harnesses, and the two throttle cables. there are other hoses connected to the bottom that i didnt want to mess with. you can pull the throttle body far enough away to clean it out. after you clean it, put it all back together.
good luck everyone and enjoy the diffirence when you are done

Old Apr 21, 2004 | 03:19 AM
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bump for morning crowd

and im off for vacation
Old Apr 21, 2004 | 04:03 AM
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i wish i was on vacation again!!! work sucks!
but it more than pays the bills and helps pay for bad habbits ie. mods!
Old Apr 21, 2004 | 08:07 AM
  #27  
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Question: You said you removed the throttle cables right? Does the service manaual have a way to return them back to normal? I have experimented with adjustments on the throttle body and have had various results with MPG and response. I think iI am pretty much back to stock setting but I do want to clean it as you did.

Thanks in advance.
Old Apr 21, 2004 | 08:36 AM
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Is cleaning the intake manifold a good idea?
Old Apr 21, 2004 | 08:56 AM
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Originally Posted by nailz420
Is cleaning the intake manifold a good idea?
I guess. Cleaning the intake manifold may improve airflow upstream of the injectors. Cleaning the stuff downstream from the injectors to the intake valves can improve things moreso, since carbon downstream from the injectors can act as a gasoline sponge, potentially causing the engine to run lean (until/unless the ECU compensates, in which case you're pumping more fuel). Typically the ports downstream from the injectors are cleaned with solvents such as BG44K, Chevron Techron, etc. although since they're concentrated inside fuel, I'm not sure how effective they are at cleaning the lower intake manifold ports. They're usually marketed as injector or intake valve cleaners. I'm sure removing the lower intake manifold and cleaning it by hand would be better, but probably gross overkill.
Old Apr 21, 2004 | 11:14 AM
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Originally Posted by spirilis
I guess. Cleaning the intake manifold may improve airflow upstream of the injectors. Cleaning the stuff downstream from the injectors to the intake valves can improve things moreso, since carbon downstream from the injectors can act as a gasoline sponge, potentially causing the engine to run lean (until/unless the ECU compensates, in which case you're pumping more fuel). Typically the ports downstream from the injectors are cleaned with solvents such as BG44K, Chevron Techron, etc. although since they're concentrated inside fuel, I'm not sure how effective they are at cleaning the lower intake manifold ports. They're usually marketed as injector or intake valve cleaners. I'm sure removing the lower intake manifold and cleaning it by hand would be better, but probably gross overkill.
My thoughts exactly... since I've heard that Maxima's are notorious for carbon build up, how can you clean the intake manifold between the throttle body and the lower intake ports. I've heard of people spraying the cleaner down the manifold while the engine is running, not sure if that's a good idea. Anybody got any ideas on this????? Thanks.
Old Apr 22, 2004 | 04:05 AM
  #31  
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Originally Posted by nailz420
Is cleaning the intake manifold a good idea?
i think its a real good idea, ive had mine polished before and my car acted like new, i just cleaned my tb again last night(first time since before christmas) and it wasnt that dirty on the intake side but on the back side damn it was filthy
Old Apr 22, 2004 | 05:12 AM
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Is there a write up on how to clean the intake manifold? I think cleaning it by hand would be an overkill, so is there a way to sort of flush it out all at once with some kinda solvent or something?
Old Apr 22, 2004 | 05:30 AM
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I'm not sure if you'd *want* to flush all that **** down... you'd have gunk all over your intake valves and combustion chamber
Old Jan 27, 2013 | 08:41 PM
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Originally Posted by SoonerFan
umm.....tight but not to tight since the manifold is plastic
ill look in the service manual and include those


look don't tork that much at all just cleaned tb like my late dad told me and the sencer on the side with the 7 mm bolts and more brittle than u think torked with index finger and f***d up bolt should of used pinky finger instead wish it wasn't 20 degrees or less out side might of felt the bolt better but for tb bolts them self should be around 25 foot pounds.

the colder it is out side the more brittle the plastic so be careful when out side or in a cold shop

the sencer will melt with reg. cleaner so you have to remove it first or
Old Jan 27, 2013 | 09:07 PM
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Originally Posted by roninautotech
look don't tork that much at all just cleaned tb like my late dad told me and the sencer on the side with the 7 mm bolts and more brittle than u think torked with index finger and f***d up bolt should of used pinky finger instead wish it wasn't 20 degrees or less out side might of felt the bolt better but for tb bolts them self should be around 25 foot pounds.

the colder it is out side the more brittle the plastic so be careful when out side or in a cold shop

the sencer will melt with reg. cleaner so you have to remove it first or
you do know this thread is from 2004 dont you? remember to look at the date before you post because people around here dont like to bump ancient threads. but good luck with whatever you screwed up on your car, because i didnt understand one thing you wrote. your newbness has been forgiven, consider your self lucky. or maybe i spoke too soon?
Old Jan 27, 2013 | 09:09 PM
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Originally Posted by roninautotech
but for tb bolts them self should be around 25 foot pounds.
Might want to verify: Foot pounds or Inch pounds? Makes a HUGE difference!
Old Jan 27, 2013 | 09:11 PM
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I see 4 fails here.
-you bumped an old thread
-nothing you said serves a purpose to bumping this old thread
- you make no sense
-sensor*
Old Jan 27, 2013 | 09:14 PM
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Originally Posted by Chris Gregg
Might want to verify: Foot pounds or Inch pounds? Makes a HUGE difference!
I need to correct my last post... 6 fails!

-Inche pounds
- and the fact that you have "autotech" as part of a username... I really hope you are not!

Good catch chris gregg.
Old Jan 27, 2013 | 09:31 PM
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Originally Posted by user name001
I need to correct my last post... 6 fails!

-Inche pounds
- and the fact that you have "autotech" as part of a username... I really hope you are not!

Good catch chris gregg.
Careful, starting to sound like me on my bad days!!
Old Jan 27, 2013 | 09:32 PM
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if you do full throttle runs at least once a week the throttle plate area should be relatively clean.
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