I have my 2002 TL-S at the dealer for 30K miles service. They called me and told me that the throttle body needed service (to the tune of $150). They also said that this was a normal service item at each 30K miles.

The owner's manual says nothing about that. What kind of upselling is this? I am already paying $318 for the 30K miles service (took it to the dealer hoping to get a new tranny because the current one works like crap). Well at least the gave me another TL-S as a loaner.

 

Tell them to show you in the owner's manual where it says it is a normal service item. My dealer tried it with a tranny flush at 15k I asked them to show me in the manual where it says it should be done at 15K and they said "well we do that here" nasty tone of voice too. I guess he did not like being called on his bullsh** .

 

If something on the tb needs serviced, it should be under warranty. Ask them what exactly they do, and then decline, and never go back. When you get their survey, fill it out with all the details of what they said.

 

The only service I've done myself on previous cars to the TB is to clean the butterfly (call it what you want) of grime buildup and make sure that the idle airways are clean. Other than this an *maybe* lubricating some linkages there is nothing to do unless something breaks like the TPS.
All in all its $4 for a can of intake cleaner you just spray on, wipe and dry.

 

I wussied out on this 30K service - agreed to do the tranny fluid change, although the manual does not tell to do that until way later. Anyway, the tranny was shifting like crap, so I figured maybe that would help. It looks like it helped, at least for now. The tranny is shifting much more smoothly now.


It was nice that they gave me another TL-S as a loaner. Wow, that car felt quite better than mine.

 

I don't want to break something - is it relatively easy to get to the throttle body?

 

I haven't done it on my TL yet (>65K). Just remove the rubber snorkel tube that attaches to the Throttle body (tube between the air filter and the TB) and you have a clear view of the intake.

If I'm incorrect in thinking that this was what the dealer was going to do someone please enlighten me....

 

Make sure they replace your blinker fluid too.

 

they already did that, I think every 1,000 miles.

 

hey severin...no its not hard to do....just remove the intake tube then open your throttle plate...and with some carb cleaner on a rag wipe around the area that the plate closes. HTH

 

tls has 2 throttle butterflys the deeper is hard to get to, you need to use a wood dowl and a rag and some cleaner but anyone who has a sticky trottle at idle needs to do this. It's a build up of oil vapors recirculated through from the pcv valve.