"Don't clean the thottle body"??

[Empty Pockets]

Why is there a sticker on my throttle body that says don't clean it? Mine is filthy, there is a solid black coating on the whole inside & the throttle is sticking. I don't know if it has anything to with the K&N drop-in that I've been using, but I need to clean it.

I heard that some of the older carb cleaners don't have lubricants that fuel injectors need, I think that I've read some cans of fuel injector cleaners that say "Safe for fuel injection"

Can anybody tell me what the story is?

 

[Frisckey1]

I don't know the exact story, but...

I cleaned mine w/ Throttle Body Cleaner by Gumout. Dude at the dearlership said it wouldn't hurt anything, and why pay a shop to do it. He did say not to use anything abrasive to clean it with (something about a coating on the TB). Anyway, didn't seem to hurt mine any.

 

[red93sport]

I used the same Throttle Body cleaner by Gumout and it worked just fine and an old cotton t-shirt to wipe out the blach gunk on the seats of the butterfly baffel. My truck is running better now give it a try.

 

[F'in Bob]

According to the manual...

...there is a special anti-carbon coating on the throttle body and to not clean it cause it could come off. However, i cleaned the bejesus out of mine with throttle body cleaner cause it was covered with soot. I'm strictly referring to the inside here.

 

[Empty Pockets]

It seems that we all have the same soot so the coating can't be doing too much once the vehicle gets older.

I'm going to clean it with a "throttle body" cleaner.

 

[scott]

I agree...

if the insides are black then it's either gone or not working. I used carb cleaner on mine and have had no problems at all(on my stock one).

 

[FiremanRon]

I thought my throttle cable was sticking untill I had the air tube off to change the thermostat. The build-up in the throttle body was causing the butterfly to stick when you first pressed on the gas. I cleaned it out with a wire brush and crocus cloth. Now the gas pedal moves light as a feather. I assumed the build-up was from the thermostat being stuck open, causing it to run rich from being cold all the time.

 

[Ray Hutchinson]

Throttlebody Cleaning

My mechanic reccomended using the above GumoutTB Cleaner, and an old toothbrush with a stick wired to the handle to make an extension, and scrub lightly between sprays. DONT use abrasive. You will remove the special coating, and risk putting the abrasive particles into the injectors.

 

[Maxxim_Hacks]

The reason motorcraft doesn't want you to clean the TB is because the throttle position sensor can disengage and send erranious reading to the ECM and this will cause sluggish response, unpredictable shifts for people with automatics, and can also mess with the MAF readings sent to the ECM.

I hope this helps you guys... You can clean the TB with anything you want; Acetone works wonders on carbon deposits.

If you do clean the TB, ABSOLUTELY, under no circumstance, remove the screws holding the valve in place! What I decribed above WILL happen to you and you WILL have to get a new TB and sensor! Hope this helps.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Wow, sounds important, thanks Maxxim.

I know on other vehicles I've replaced and/or adjusted the throttle position sensor with a multi-meter and the specs, obviously that is something that we would like to avoid.

I've heard good things about the "throttle body cleaners" I just used one made by Prestone. I think that the trick is to use the right stuff and avoid the Carb cleaners.

 

[FiremanRon]

I forgot to mention that when I cleaned my throttle body, I removed it from the vehicle and used compressed air to blow it out when I was done, so there was no chance of getting any debris in the engine.