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Cleaning the MAF and Throttle Body question


Dicky

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Been reading about the guys who have cleaned the above two devices & because I'm thinking of having the up rev done I'm looking into any other stuff that might be worth doing before I commit to the tune. My question is: how do you know if these devices need attention? How does poor operation show itself? I get the impression that cleaning them carries some risk so thought I'd ask first

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Take the air intake pipe off the throttle body and have a look at the butterfly valve plate, however do not push it open with you fingers.

you have been warned.

it should look nice and clean. :thumbs:

See what I mean RISK! :scare: Knowing my luck I'll sneeze or something nd that'll be that. Is there a noticeable fall of in performance or are these jobs just routine maintenance. My cars an 04 and done 55k

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I had a slightly erratic idle so so decided that the throttle body needed cleaning. When I took off the intake pipe the edges looked a little dirty so I decided to try and clean it in-situ while at the same time using 10kboost to clean out any downstream crap. I gently pushed the plate to open it and sprayed carb cleaner liberally. Used paper towel to carefully wipe around the edge and also had some under the end of the throttle body to catch the gunk that dribbled out.

 

My moment of madness came when I got my son to srpay the 10k boost while I revved the engine. Cries of panic from him as the paper towel that I had placed under the throttle body was sucked into it. Fortunately it got caught and I manged to get it all out, but only after quite a fight and a fair amount of manipulation of the throttle body plate. I put everything back to together and did the pedal dance to reset everything and "oh crap" the idle was as high as 1500 rpm befire finally settling aroung 900-950 rpm. After reading many posts from this and other Zed sites I thought that I had damaged the throttle body. Sigh....

 

I put after with the high idle for a week then decided to have one last investigation before a trip to my pet garage.

- In case there was a vacuum leak I reassembled the inlet piping making sure that everything was really tight.The breather pipe underneath is quite a pain unless you either have very small strong hands or the right shape pliers.

-I disconnected the battery for an hour.

- I redid the pedal dance for learning the trottle position. This time I did one thing slightly different though which I suspect was the previous cause of all my problems. After releasing the accelerator pedal when the engine light becomes steady I just flicked the key one more notch to start the engine rather than through force of habit been turing off then on to start the engine.

 

Yippee :teeth: Idle smooth as anything and back down to 650-700 rpm.

 

So after what I did to it, I think that the xtreme delicate nature of the throttle body may be just a myth although I would not recommend being to rough with it.

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Thanks for that input posidrive it all helps. I'm now wondering if we might have the same dad (mine got around a bit) cos your mishaps are just the sort of thing that happens to me when I try to pick up tools :lol:

I'm going to give it a go when I get the required cleaning fluids but I'll be sure to keep tissues and cloths well clear if I have to start it up :lol: By the way it was just as well your son was well clear at the time :headhurt:

Wish me luck and keep an eye out for my post when I'm finished and asking how to straighten the throttle plate or some other mishap :blush:

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