Does this need cleaning?

Mike P

Mike P

c:enter
Staff member
Paid Member
Wirelessly posted (Droid 2, cldnt afford iPhone : Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.3; en-us; DROIDX Build/4.5.1_57_DX5-32) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

photobucket-2676-1314906261894.jpg


photobucket-2707-1314906207308.jpg
 
Last edited:
personally I think yes. I've noticed alot of cars tend to have a slight shake at idle or small miss when the TB's are dirty like that
 
ok yea, Joes question was better, does it? and how do I go about it? brake cleaner and scrub? don't let it in the intake? How do I go about it exactly?
 
i think Ford makes a water based TB cleaner for it, i think there is a factory coating on it that will be removed if you use a harsh cleaner like brake cleaner :confused:
 
If it opens and closes freely I wouldn't miss sleep over it. However, it wouldn't hurt if you did clean it.
 
Sea Foam makes a spray that claims it won't harm throttle body coatings. I saw a can in Advance Auto Parts the other day.
 
Mike P said:
ok yea, Joes question was better, does it? and how do I go about it? brake cleaner and scrub? don't let it in the intake? How do I go about it exactly?
Click to expand...

personally I use carburator cleaner and a tooth brush then spray it out with wd 40 after
 
you are not supposed to clean throttle body butterflies, specially with any kind of scrubber or wire brush. you dont have to clean it so it looks brand new, it will not make any difference in performance. if you must clean it for peace of mind, put the throttle body back on, and get the seafoam in the spray can, it has a special hose that slips in between the throttle body bore and the air intake tube, start the car and spray, it will clean it enough to make you happy and wont damage anything.
 
I cleaned mine years ago with standard tb cleaner by gumout and have never had any problems. I just used a old cotton t-shirt to wipe it down. Thing was black when I was done.

Coating shmoeting.................
 
That explains why the car kept throwing stuck pass side imrc codes years back..


I've seafoamed mine but can't say for sure that's what made it stop sticking after I free'd it by hand multiple times. I do know that after seafoaming it and then taking it over 3grand blocked dam near a whole 4 lane hw for 50 or so yards.
 
Last edited:
sbcaprice305 said:
Makes me wonder if seafoaming would even help get rid of that stuff.
Click to expand...

Well the throttle body and IMRCs would definitely be a good test of that method:D, but I am going to guess NO. I think either one of these components need to be cleaned by hand. Regular seafoaming to minimize the buildup in its early stages may be a whole different story though. But, when do we a lot of times see these ideas come about? When the IMRCs or even throttle body are already sticking. By then its too late for a can of the magic to clean that stuff off IMO.

I think that throttle body needs a toothbrush. :)

LOL, I can see you edit as fast as me there sb. :) Stranger things have happened I guess, in my case, even all that crud never caused mine to stick oddly enough. We were actually troubleshooting a vac leak at the time and decided to replace the gaskets and came upon this atrocity.
 
Last edited:
The throttle body coating is to keep the carbon from accumulating where the throttle blades shut.

Gentle cleaning with Seafoam wouldn't hurt but beware of wire brushes and aggressive cleaners.
 
Driller is right, and it actually does more than just prevent carbon build up.

Once the coating is removed, the idle control is effected due to more air going around the throttle plates.

the coating creates the seal around the throttle blades.
Its sprayed in from the back side of the blades with the blades closed.

It's removal causes that oh so common "slowing falling idle" that many people complain about.
 
it goes back to the whole " its there for a reason " saying. i cleaned a throttle body once with harsh cleaner just to prove a point but lost the pictures. with the blades closed and coating gone, you could see light around the edges of the blades, and guess how good the car ran with the throttle body back on. go ahead and clean it, and after your coating comes off the blades, and the car starts to run like crap, go in the for sale section and start a willing to buy thread, for a used 2nd gen throttle body lol.
 
Do NOT use "carb cleaner". Get the throttle body cleaner. Or better yet, warm water and a gentle wiping.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top