So over the past 9 months or so, I've been concentrating pretty much full time on golf. The car has become basically transportation, nice transportation, but just getting me point A to point B. Don't get me wrong, I still take care of it, but washes have been getting farther apart, etc. In that time, it's just kind of tapered off with respect to SOTP feel, not as punchy or mean, still a fast car, but showing it's age. I just passed 50K miles, and yeah, it's just getting up there in age.

A couple of days ago I'm driving home and hit a pretty big bump, and the car died. Finally got it restarted, rough idle, limped it home, reloaded the tune, still rough. I knew I needed to clean the throttle body so I drove my wife's car to work today and cleaned it out tonight. When I popped the hood and started taking off the CAI, I touched it and it fell off the tb. Whoops, the elbow was a bit loose there eh? I guess that could explain some rough idle.

So I took it all apart, cleaned it (wow was it dirty), put it all back together and went out for a test drive. Whoah mama jama! This car runs like a raped F'ing ape now. The RPM's stay up when shifting, and it hits HARD. It's been a while, so the reaction is a bit much, but I swear it feels like it's never run harder. Ever. So my free tip for everyone in the 40K or more mile range and who've never done it, clean your throttle body. You'll be glad you did!

 

I'm glad that was all it took to get her running good again. Also a very good tip.

 

I guess another good tip is to make sure your intake is attached to your throttle body too...

 

 

I am running the C&L Racer intake on my '06 GT too, it seems to loosen up every 5-6 thousand miles. I love the intake, its just become regular maintenance to check it and make sure it isnt coming loose.

 

Maybe there was a crack by the elbow that let unfiltered air in? That would probably result in a really dirty TB I would think.

 

So what's the best TB cleaner out there? Do you take it off to clean it?

 

Sea Foam makes a cleaner that you can use (any auto parts store should have it). It's like brake parts cleaner but better, you can use it to break up rust, clean intakes, carbs, etc...

It's only like 5-8 bucks.

 

I have been using a product called the Intake Snake, which I read about in Popular Mechanics about 7 years ago. It works great and is relatively easy to use. Link below:

http://www.intakesnake.com/industry/9710.html

 

They both sound like good products. I've used Seafoam before to clean out carbon buildup. Do you need to take off the throttle body or do yo just take the intake hose off and spray it in there?

 

You can spray it with the t/b on, totally safe.

 

Cool, I think I'll give it a shot this weekend.

 

Awesome Ryan. Keep us posted on how it turns out.

 

Anyone have pictures of what their throttle body looks like before and after?

 

how is a throttle body going to get carbon on it?

 

Ummm...through blow-by that occurs over time. You have a hose that goes from the crankcase to your intake inlet for vacum. Obviously since there is carbon build up in the crank case, the vacum of the intake will induce carbon deposits. This is why some people resort to a "catch can" or check valve.

 

Outstanding question!

 

Ummm....Not quite. Carbon deposits can be found in the combustion chambers, and are the byproduct of incomplete consumption of the intake charge (air, fuel, contaminants). If you have carbon deposits in the crankcase, you have much larger concerns than a dirty throttle body.

What you're actually referring to is oil vapor in suspension with the PCV return air, and some cars will exhibit far too much condensed oil in the intake track, which leads to contamination of the intake charge, and thus to carbon deposits in the combustion chamber, and sludge on the backs of the intake valves.

I'm one of those that runs an air/oil separator in the return line, and it should work like a charm. I put mine on over the winter, and only have 300 miles on it since, so I haven't needed to drain the can yet, but time will tell. I have great faith, however, that this will cure the oil-contamination issue being discussed here...



The PCV flow works like this... The air (with suspended oil) from the crankcase is sucked into the side of the can due to engine vacuum. Once inside the can, the mixture is drawn up to the top of the can, through a foam filter, and then down a tube in the center of the can that feeds the outlet at the bottom, which then heads to the manifold. The motion of the airflow "slings" off the bulk of the oil particles during the assorted turns, and the lighter, finer particles are trapped in the foam until they drip down into the can with the engine off. Not seen in the picture is a petcock-style drain fitting at the lower "corner" of the can for easy servicing.

 

Just got done cleaning the throttle body. I also cleaned my air filter and just for fun reloaded my tune. It really helped. The idle and throttle response are a little better and for whatever reason when I shift the RPMs stay up better.
Thanks for the tip!

 

How many miles are/were on your car when you cleaned the throttle body out?