My 04 TSX gas mileage so far has been best described as so-so, low 20's but I do a lot of city driving. Was thinking about cleaning the throttle body with the CRC Air Intake/Throttle body cleaner, is it safe to open the "plate" inside the throttle body and spray inside into the throttle body? How does the "plate" open when the engine is off? Can you just push it open or is there a mechanism on the outside that needs to be press to open it?

I've done the air filter, spark plugs (OEM), and fuel system cleaner. Helped with acceleration and engine performance but no increase in gas mileage.

 

yes the throttle body "plate" or butterfly valve pushes open with your hand.
you can spray it with carb cleaner.
take a rag with carb cleaner on it and make sure you get the back of the plate as well.


you should also look into seafoam.

 

Finally got around to cleaning the throttle body but just the front, could not figure out how to push the plate open as it did not open by pushing on with the hand. Sprayed some CRC throttle body/air intake cleaner a couple of times and wiped up with a dry cloth. Defintely notice a "small" increase in throttle response, better idle and small increase in gas mileage.

Even though I did not spray into the throttle body with the plate open, the car still needed a few good crank for for it to start after cleaning the front of the plate. Wiping the back of the plate with a cloth would had been good but I couldn't get it to open by pushing by hand.

 

A recent oil comsumption test demonstrated that if I vtec regularly I use 1 qt/1,000 miles, but if I don't vtec I use 0.2 qt/1,000 miles. So, where does the oil go if I vtech a lot? Does it mess up the cat, does some of it get recirculated and mess up your intake?

Do you vtec a lot? The Acura guys say my oil consumption pattern is normal; people vtecing a lot should check their oil level regularly - and often. I have 82,000 miles on the car; I'll take a look at my throttle body when the weather gets warmer. One thing I did to the car when new - something I found here on acurazine.com - was put a filter on the tube coming out of the valve cover which then leads back into the intake pipe; it still looks clean.