check engine light after cleaning throttle body
 

i cleaned the throttle body out and afterwards got a check engine light. the car runs fine, but i dont know how to reset the system to get rid of the light.
anyone know how???

What year is your vehicle (I am assuming you cleaned the butterfly valve and this is what caused the CEL to come on).

I sure hope you have better luck than me. I did the same exact thing to my max about 6 months ago. My SES came on afterward, and a day or 2 later my idle raised to 1000 rpm.
I had it checked out by my buddy down at Nissan and P0507 was the code. They told me that the code points to the tb. I argued with them about it, I mean how can a cleaner mess up an aluminum piece? They installed a new tb and sent me on my way. I got about 2 blocks away and the SES light came back on, so I turned around and went back. They were baffled why it came back on, and tried another tb. The same thing happened again.
I searched on the internet to see if I was the only one who had this problem, and found that several Altima owners had experienced this before. WHat happens is that the ecm senses a foriegn substance entering the tb, and throws a code for a bad tb. The code is stuck in the ecm, you cannot remove it. They tried resetting it several times. All in all it took a new ecm to solve the problem. Now it runs like a champ, again.
Nissan then informed me that the only way you can clean the tb on the 3.5, is to moisten a cloth with cleaner and wipe it out. Never spray the cleaner into it.

Hope this helps,
Paulb

now THAT sucks....does this apply to 2k-2k1 models as well?

I was able to clean my TB without any problems. I removed it from the IM and I sprayed it repeatedly with cleaner. I used a tooth brush and some qtips as well. I think the main issue is to not move the butterfly valve at all. Don't put enough pressue on it to make it move. I also read somewhere that disconnecting the wire harness on the TB on the 3.5 causes problems. I left it connected and cleaned the TB in the engine bay; put some paper towels down. You have to go through and do a ecu reset and the throttle positioning reset if you disconnect that wire harness.

ive had it happen after ive cleaned my intake..its prob some water that got in there or something, if the cars running fine, just go to autozone or something and get the code cleared

thaks for that info paul . I know i will keep that in mid next time i clean my t.b.

I cleaned mine and got an SES code p0100(I was running the engine). Clearing with a scantool didnt work, but disconnecting the battery for 10 mins did!

Tony

I had the same thing happen, reset the ECU and it would come back. There was no way in hell I was going to replace the TB, so I just kept driving it. After 2-3 months the CEL went out and never came back.

Same thing happened to me. The light went off but then came on again. My idle is around 900 rpm's.

Holly willickers, im not the only person with the problem.
A friend of mine told me to go clean out my TB. He said he did the same on his 4th generation max and it did wonders for him. Being a fool I listened to him and let him clean it his way. Having the engine run and him spraying into the TB while the valve is open. Guess what. A couple of days later I get the code for AAC/IACC valve error. Stupid error wont go away even now! I disconnected the battery a million times only to get the code a little bit later. Car runs on safe mode which is the 190hp (I think) and does about 250 mile to the 15 gallon before need gas light.

I had the exact same problem, went away after a month or two. It has something to do with the ECU detecting a foreign substance in there and it will throw the code and idle/run like crap until all traces of the cleaner are gone.

The only way to fix it is to replace the TB and possibly the ECU, or just wait until it fixes itself.

It would be nice to have a definitive answer in this.

Cleaning the TB on 3.5 is not recommended but several of us (including myself) have done so. If you wish to risk it:
- Don't force the throttle plate open
- Don't get any of the electrical connections disconnected
- Don't separate the MAF from the intake midsection
- Don't get anything on the MAF filaments
- Don't run the engine without the complete intake re-assembled and in place
- Don't turn on the key or try to start the car with anything disconnected
- DO perform the Idle Air Volume and Throttle Position reset procedures
- DO let the intake completely dry out (several minutes) before re-assembly
- DO use Throttle Body Cleaner and not Carb Cleaner
- DO tighten your clamps securely to prevent unmetered air leaks, a main cause of bad idle after cleaning your TB

Did mine at about 40k. 64K now, no SES lights, no idle or drivability problems (related to the TB, anyway. Still got stupid evap canister issue.)

ditto, i have been dealing on and off with that code for 6-8 months now. Just isn't justified to drop $600 to get it fixed-if indeed it is bad.

I did the tb cleaning about a year ago. I disconnected negative terminal of battery before starting anything. I disconnected electrical connections in order to remove the intake box. Cleaned the throttle body gently with a cloth moistened with some generic degreaser. everything was fine aftter putting it back together and no ses light. I had very litle carb build up in the throttle body , dont think the cleaning even helped with anything. Car ran exactly the same after the procedure. the cleaning was done when i had 70k miles on odo.

Well fluck a duck! It's a biatch isn't it? I removed my throttle body about 2 months ago and cleaned it. I even removed the butterfly plate to do a thorough cleaning. When I put it back together and start driving, I got the dreaded yellowish/orange light. I did all the resets which got rid of the light, but it came back on soon after. Every once in a while the light would go off for a little while, but would come back on. The light has been off now for about 4 days straight, so I'm hoping it's cured. It's still idleing higher than normal and it drives me nuts. It seems like my gas mileage has taken a turn for the worse. Good luck to the rest of you. It would have been nice to know you can't clean the TB before doing it.

I cleaned mine the other day... the SES light came on because I ran the car without the intake on, I never bothered to reset it because the next day (yesterday) I was having the HS headers installed. I ran into a few problems with the install sooooo I have NO O2 sensors hooked up so naturally my SES light came back on... so once I fix my O2 sensors I can tell if my TB is still throwing a code... :gotme:

I can't believe that spraying intake cleaner in the TB would do damage. There has to be a fix for this and somone at Nissan must know why this happens. I'm afraind to bring my car into Nissan because the stealership has no heart and will charge you until you have to take out a second mortgage to pay the bill. Has anyone gotten the idle fixed and the light to stay off?

My car is at the dealer now for the same exact prob. as elgrande2003se,Damnit this sux!!!

I had the SES light on after cleaning my TB along with the high idle. I drove my car to Florida, the SES just turned off and idle went back to normal.

Just do the same thing and MaximaPolak and I did, just drive it for awhile and hopefully it will go away.

Fasster please keep us posted on what they find. I've heard of ECU's being replaced, TB's chnaged, etc. So I'm not sure if some of the stealerships know how to deal with this problem either. One guy mentioned a stuck code in the ECU because of the cleaning. But I would think that clearing the ECU would get rid of the code for good but it comes back so something is not clearing properly. Also, why would the car idle higher after a cleaning? The ECU must be sending instructions to create this situation. I asked my boss to ask his friend who is a service manager at Nissan about this problem. I'll keep you guys posted.

When the ecm throws the code, it puts the car in safe mode. When you reset it, or have it cleared the tb goes through a learning mode. If this code is stored, it cannot go through this process. That means high idle, hesitation, bad fuel consumption, and plain ole crappy driving.
I had this problem for a couple weeks, and could never get it to go away. They reset it over and over, with no luck. The trick is to not tell the dealership that you did anything, and to make sure you take it in with the oem intake. Your drivetrain warranty should cover it, it did mine.

Paulb

Yep, I had the same exact problem you guys had....P0507 code, high idle(~900 rpm). Tried everything and had this problem for 2 weeks and finally went to the dealer for the fix. They replaced my ECU under my Emmissions Warranty and that was the fix. These new cars with new technology are way tooo sensistive

6 months and counting, it didnt go away yet.

Should I change the ECU? I have a 2000 GXE, do I find an ECU from any 2k or specifically a GXE?

If you have an auto, then you need an ECU for an auto. If you have an auto, you can use a ECU from a GXE, GLE, or SE. If you have a manual, then you need a manual ECU from a GXE or SE.

I get my car back tomorrow,The dealership told me the same thing as it was a "stuck code" that would not go away untill they replaced the PCM. I asked them why did they think it happened (I didnt tell them really why lol) and they said that they have had a few come in for the same code/prob. and Nissan's way of fixing it is to replace the PCM and sometimes the whole throttle body/actuator assy. They also said it could be due to some trash in the throttole body/butterfly assy. Ill post tomorrow and let everybody know how much diff. and better it is.

I talked to my friend who is friends with a service manager at Nissan. He said that he has never seen this problem and that I should check to make sure that the butterfly is closing all the way. I probably will bring the car in for a diagnostic. What is the PCM?

I went out tonight to work on the high idle problem. If I use the idle adjustment procedure I can get my car to idle normal. But once I shut the car down and restart my car idles at 1k and not 650 which is about normal. So it can't be my butterfly since I am able to get a normal idle. For some reason the ECU will not retain this setting.

Yeah, there's no way of fixing it yourself. I tried doing the reset procedure and it did the same thing you described. You'll have to go to the dealer for warranty work.

It's funny how the ECU doesn't like "foreign" substances in the throttle body but yet it takes nitrous just fine...weird. It must be a calibration thing and not the type of cleaner being used. Maybe the gas pedal must move in conjunction with the butterfly valve otherwise the calibration is thrown off.

Same here... :(
I can get it idling at 700 after the procedure, but once car is restarted it goes back to 900+. What could it be? i mean, if TB was mechanically broken, the idle wouldn't go down after the “The idle air volume learning"...
Anyway, Sentra gyus are having the same problems as well, here's what i found on their forum:
"...The problem he said wasn't with the throttle actuator, but it was the throttle chamber itself that was getting stuck. So they replaced the throttle chamber, reprogrammed it, and now I'm good to go and she's running like she's supposed to be!..."

The throttle chamber? I guess he means the throttle body. What did they reprogram? The ECU? Like you write if we can get the idle to go down with the procedure it can't be mechanical. Something is telling the butterfly to open up at idle for some reason.

Fasster: In your post you mentioned that the dealer changed out your PCM. Did you mean ECM? Also, is your high idle problem fixed? Was it fixed under the emission warranty?

Thanks

PCM/ECM both the same,Yes my idle is back to norm. and it was also fixed under warranty. I noticed also that the car is more responsive and get about 4-5 more mpg than it did with the light on,so yes it is alot better/fixed and you can bet I wont be cleaning my TB anymore unless I/we can fig. out how without causing the SES light. If I can help let me know.

Fasster: Thanks for the info. One last question. My car has 54k on it. Did they fix yours under the 6yr/60,000 emission warranty?

Thanks

Hey guys the only way I could keep my 01 maxima from shutting off while driving is to clean the tb. We do it every oil change so that I avoid the car shut offs. When doing so make sure not to not to spray the sensors and let it evaporate before you start the engine. We clean inside the butterfly valve too, the key is to be careful.

Traderfjp,as of the 6yr/60,000 warranty I dont think it was because of that,Ive got an 100,000 mile extended warranty that I guess they replaced it under but if you dont have that (100,000) I guess they will/should replace it cause it falls under that (6yr/60,000) though. Hpprincess,the "00-02"s are diff. in that they dont have/arnt drive by wire (no throttle cable) operated TBs. Im a mechanic and yes it is good to clean the TB and intake every so often but on the "03" I guess untill I/we find specificlly why it does this you just cant clean the TB. Im looking into it through some stuff at work and as soon as I find anything Ill let everybody know. Good luck

The first thing they did was replace my TB. That does not solve the problem, the problem lies in the ecm where the code is stored. They tried 2 other TB's on mine just to double check. You must get the ecm replaced. They covered mine under the 6 year/60,000 mile warranty.

Low Rpm
 

My 2000 Maxima SE is idling at almost 0 RPM (should be close to 1000), and shuts off frequently when i press the cluth all the way. The clutch was bad, so I thought that was the problem, I just changed the clutch, and now thats working like new. But the car still idles at very low RPM. when im driving it's fine, but when I stop, mostly when I stop abuptly, it just shuts off. I was told I need to get the throttle body cleaned. does anyone know how much it cost to get it done at the dealership. I was planning on doing it myself, but after seeing all the problems people had, I dont know if I want to attempt doing it myself.

All replies welcome.

Thanks