Man, I love this place. Read a thread a few days ago about the delayed acceleration kind of thing and someone mentioned the throttle body. So I was thinking I needed a new one and was pricing them

Then I found another thread about cleaning the TB and that could help. Holy crap, did it ever! I watched a couple of Youtube vids of guys doing it and figured I could handle it easily and it gave me more time to commune with my "Lil' Blue Darlin'" so I ran up to O'Reillys for some CRC TB Cleaner and started disconnecting stuff. Then I had to go back to buy a deep well 8MM socket I thought I had and didn't (you just need a 10MM and an 8MM for the job.)

Here it is before cleaning. Hint, this was the clean side!


I forgot to snap a pic of the other side, but it was nasty. Big rings of black sludge where the flaps close and a thick layer of yellow on both sides. Sprayed it down a bunch and it broke off a lot and just dripped off, but most of it took some scrubbing and repeated sprays. I didn't get it perfect, but I made an enormous difference and once I re-assembled everything, it felt like a newly-tuned vehicle. I mean really impressive sounding and smooth.

Plus, and here's the best part - THE LAG IS GONE.

Seriously, the accelerator is as smooth as my wife's Sorento and it only cost a few bucks and an hour of effort. I will probably open it up again and take a stiffer brush to it later, but I am pretty impressed with myself ... and TMS right now!

 

 

Most DEFF, I recently cleaned my GFs off of her five hundred & mine off of my 05 sixxer mucho cleano jaja

 

Yep yep yep... gotta keep them TBs clean. Amazing how simple that fix is, yeah?

 

How many miles do you have on your car? I'm at 42k. Do you think it'd be worth cleaning? I know a lot probably has to do with type of driving, environment, etc. Just wondering if it'd be worth digging into or if its really not an issue till higher mileage.

 

I was at just over 74K miles and I am fairly sure it had never been cleaned.
I have read that every 25K or so is good. It sure can't hurt (as long as you remove the TB first!) and it definitely gives you a more intimate relationship with your car.

 

Careful with the stiff brush, a cloth has aways worked for me.

 

Wow thanks for bringing this up. Ive got about 78K on my sixer and I have definately been noticing some lag. Most likey has never been done. Going to get on this this weekend for sure!

 

better burn outs now eh

 

Here's a question for you on this. Did you have to completely disconnect and remove the throttle body? I am assuming you don't want any of that garbage getting down into the engine.

 

I remove the TB when I clean it. Only takes about 15 minutes or so to take it off, clean it and put it back on. Makes all the difference in the world in throttle response.

 

Yeah, it is NOT worth the risk that "something" might go inside.
Take it off completely.

 

Another good thing to do is change your fuel filter. It's easy and makes a difference.

 

This just might be my weekend activity!

 

the cleaner evaporates rather quickly so its not the end of the world if you don't remove the TB but you can do a better job of cleaning it if you do remove it

 

Plus, if chunks of crud get blasted back INTO the openings ...

 

I was having a rough idle and a slight hesitation on light throttle, cleaned out the front of it and around the valves and it cleared that problem up! All the black crap that I got out was nasty.. Going to remove it this spring and clean it totally out! Question though, would I need to get a new gasket or can I re-use the one that's on there?

 

The gasket is silicone or some kind of rubber and seems VERY durable. Just wiped mine off and it sealed perfectly.

 

If my car has only 6k on the odometer would I worry about cleaning the TB?

 

What I read was about every 25K - 30K. If I can keep myself to only that often.