Hey,
I'm planning to clean my throattle body since my pedal is kinda hard to press when the car is completely stopped.
My question is how do use this can of Throttle body cleaner on our TL?
I mean, when I read direction on the can, it says leave the engine running and spray the entire can into TB. Is this what I'm supposed to do?
What about sensors? Isn't it going to cause any trouble on sensors located inside TB?

 

The dealer wanted something like $200 bux to do this service... when I went in. So I'm defenitely interested in knowing the answer to this question as well. If someone can post up a pic of where the throttle body is, and post up the best possible way to clean the TB, that'd be great as well!!

 

Well, I will answer to some of my own questions.
Throttle body can be cleaned with a can of throattle body cleaner spray. Just spray it on the butterfly, rub it with tooth brush and wipe it with a cloth. Throttle body can be found if you follow your black intake hose to the engine.
My rest quesion is after I use my tooth brush to scrub the dirt/clog, do I open the butterfly on the TB and spray the entire can of spray into TB while engine is running?
Would it shut my engine off? I did it with engine off on my civic long time ago with engine off and I remember i had real hard time to start the engine.

 

Your engine should be OFF when cleaning the throttle body. This is what I use on all my cars and it works great.

$5-6 dollars per can.

 

Thanks for your input.
How come the spray can says spray with engine running?
If I spray entire can into TB, do I wait for certain time to let it dry? because I know that it will not start or very hard to start the engine.

 

Not sure which brand you bought but my can says:

DIRECTIONS FOR USE:

1. TURN ENGINE OFF.

 

No... Keep your engine ON. Look at the photo below. Unscrew that screw, and use the butterfly (throttle cable) and rev the car up a bit. Spray a shitload of carb/throttle body cleaner into it while the engine is revving. If you dont rev the engine, it will cough and sputter. You'll notice a bunch of white smoke coming out the tailpipe. Thats a good thing! All of that is built up carbon and shit.

 

I agree. You can spray the throttle body when the engine is off, but the diluted carbon residue just moves to another location. When you have the engine running and revving it, you are allowing the cleaner to mix with the gas/air mixture and basically expelling the carbon deposits out the exhausts. You have a hard time starting your engine when you spray the cleaner, since you "flooded" it. That is why it is always easier to leave the engine running. I use the STP Throttle body/Carb cleaner, I haven't seen that 3m brand cleaner, but I believe they all do the same job. My

 

if your pedal is getting harder to push its probably not the throttle body, but the linkages and cables.

the cans of carb and fuelinjecton cleaner need the engine to be running. you would pull off the intake tube and spray it before the butterfly to help clean whats before it better. in order to clean the rest of the intake and injectors and stuff the engine also needs to be running

 

Is unscrewing that screw necessarily needed?Because it doesn't look like that throttle body won't come out by removing that one screw.

 

By cleaning the throttle body, will that prevent my gas pedal from "sticking" when you first step on it? By that i mean, sometimes, my gas pedal is hard to depress at first.

 

From what I searched on the forum, it worked on some forum members. It's never going to be harmful to clean your throttle body. only helpful.

 

the throttle body WONT come off with that screw.

take off the intake tube (the piece that goes from the air box to the TB and spray it in once thats removed

 

Oh, I know I have to take the intake tube, but Comet2404 said unscrew the screw located at the red arrow.

 

I think he means that you could unscrew that screw and just spray the cleaner through that hole. But it would probably be better to take off the intake tube (what fsttyms1 said) where it's connected to the tb and just spray directly where the tube comes off from the tb. Probably cleans better that way. I need to find some time to do this also but I can't find any cans of throttle body cleaner at kragen or autozone. Seems like they only carry carbureator (sp?) cleaner.

 

yup! thats what he meant. by unscrewing that screw you could spray it in that hole, but by taking off the tube like i said you can get at it better to spray and clean. also clean and lube the linkages and cables.

 

Thanks for detail info.

 

I thought it was like 10 min job, but i was wrong. I was going to do it before I go out to dinner and after I removed plastic engine cover, I ended up putting it back on. It will probably take at least 30 min. to complete the job, right?

 

u don't spray the whole can of cleaner into the tb

 

Didn't want to start another thread and this is somewhat related...

Will cleaning out the throttle body with the engine running also clean out the egr port and/or IAC valve? Or will those have to be cleaned separately?

Another thing, would cleaning the throttle body be better if it's connected to the intake manifold or removed? What can be used to lube the throttle cable and linkages?

 

When I do my TB/intake cleaning, I disconnect and plug the tubing that goes into the intake in front of the TB just to the lower right of the AEM sticker in the picture (I have the stock intake). I connect a short piece of tubing to that vacuum port and using a funnel, I decarbonize/clean the TB and intake with SeaFoam with the engine running. Venturi effect makes the SeaFoam spray into the intake, washing down the TB and the intake tract. SeaFoam is kind of heavy so I finish up by spraying Honda TB/intake cleaner (basically toluene) down that tubing into the vacuum port. I've done this procedure each of the last 4 times I've changed the oil and so far, no problems.

 

So you disconnect the tube that goes into the intake nipple thing? I hope I understood you correctly. After that is disconnected, you plug something into that tube to keep it closed and insert another short piece of tubing into the intake nipple (just right of the AEM sticker) and feed the cleaner through that? Did using seafoam cause any problems like getting your O2 sensor messed up? Someone said in another thread that it's better to have another O2 sensor just in case it messes up the sensor. Since you said you did it 4 times I guess it's probably okay.

 

throttle body cleanning really isnt necessary nor will carb cleaner clean the egr ports that get plugged. if your going to take the time to clean it do it right and take the whole thing off and clean it that way. if not just pull the intake tube OFF and spray carb cleaner in there while the engine is running. get ready to manually rev teh car cause its going to want to die while doing it

 

daymmnnn...this is what my gas pedal is doing...i thought i was being ridiculous..
i jsut didn't think it felt like a throttle body thing..

 

Flushing the carbon and residue thru your injectors can't be a good thing. This ain't old school carburetor days where we would flood the carb with carb cleaner while flooring it.

I am still a believer of cleaning the throttle body with the engine off. And no, the crap and deposits don't get pushed somewhere else. Ever heard of wiping away the disolved residue??
Bunch of damn lazy bastards!

 

Agreed, except for one thing. It wouldn't go through the injectors, since the air entering the engine via the throttle body (and the spray stuff in this case) goes into the chambers through the intake valves. Air does not go through the injectors; only fuel does.

Either way, I don't care what the cleaner is made of; I am not spraying that into my engine.

To be on the safe side, I would gladly take off the throttle body and clean it thoroughly, instead of spraying some lame-ass cleaner and calling it a day. In fact, I'm going to order the Thermoblock spacer kit later this week, which requires taking off the intake manifold and the throttle body, and I will probably clean them while I'm at it.

 

Kris.

could u post that link u had of the throttle body cleaning that u did.
greatly appreciated.

 

I had the same problem with my gas pedal sticking too. Took off the intake hose from the throttle body and could see the deposits around the butterfly valve. Carb cleaner worked just fine to clean up the deposits and voila! No more sticky pedal. BTW, I had the engine off.

 

Since it's not posted yet, I'll put it up for Kris. Actually, it's the cleaning of the intake manifold, particularly the EGR port and other ports that may be clogged.
Click here for Kris' DIY

 

Wow.. I want to do that on my TL, too.
I bet my intake is just like that since it has high mileage on it.
How long did that take you, kris?