Cleaning the Throttle Body

Author: Anonymous

Your throttle body is located under your H6 Cover (be careful not to lose the little screw-like clips that hold it on).

Take it off and you'll see two large rubber hoses held on by large worm-gear clamps. Start by loosening those clamps. Once done, unsnap your air box (where your filter is). You'll also need to find a few hoses that are attached to the plastic bits connected to the intake (large plastic ductwork), as wall as unplug the electrical connector to your MAF (the thing that looks like a small Pizza Hut, in the plastic "ductwork" configuration).

Once all that stuff is removed, the orifices from which you undid the large clamps is your throttle body, spray those orifices liberally with carb/choke or throttle body cleaner. That will clean out accumulated varnish and other gunk.

Then, open the butterflies by depressing the accelerator (you'll see the link to the butterflies on the passenger's side -- if I remember correctly -- attached to the accelerator cable -- just depress that). Once the butterflies are open, continue to liberally spray cleaner into those areas until the cleaner begins to run clear. Occasionally use a mirror to check and make sure the areas are clean. Once you've gotten it all cleaned up, and used a rag to dry up any remaining cleaner in the intake, then, reconnect the intake ductwork and you're done.

You may experience some rough running on start up and puffs of white smoke -- that's normal. It's your car burning off the cleaner that's still in the intake. Just drive it around a little while and it'll smooth out -- plus, your ECU will begin to adjust for the freer flow of air.