How To: Throttle body cleaning 2005+ V6

Will be doing this very soon. Thank you for the write-up.

 

You are welcome. Easy to do once you get into it.

 

Thanks bro seeing I only pump 87 octane It might time for some TLC

 

OMG. Great tutorial. I'm bookmarking this. I had a HUGE problem with my 4cyl 2.7L. It would sputter and vibrate so hard shifting into 4th below 45mph. I couldn't believe my truck had to run at 2k rpms in 4th just to avoid stuttering (engine idles at 700rpm). I changed the air filter, spark plugs, lubed up the throttle cables, tons of stuff - still had problems in the winter.

Eventually I bought that $7 mass air sensor cleaner. Wow... such an immediate difference. I can shift into 4th 30-35mph easy (even up hills). I bet in 120,000mi that sensor had never been cleaned. It was rust red before spraying and shiny silver after. Got a 3mpg increase too.

Can't wait to do the throttle body. Wish this was a 4cyl tutorial.

 

I've heard you shouldn't open the valve by hand in fly by wire systems. Something about messing up the computer?

Instead you should turn the ignition to ON (not running of course) and have someone depress the throttle while you clean the throttle body.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

 

Never heard of such a thing. Doing it my way didn't hurt the electronic control. I cleaned mine & put another 100,000 miles on, without any computer issues. The battery negative is diconnected at the time of the cleaning.

 

i don't have throttle by wire so I have no idea. All that by wire stuff isn't for me. It does make the controls wicked light and easy to use though.

I drove 2 different cars the other day with steering by wire. Omg what a difference. You can tell instantly. When you hit a bump the wheel doesn't shake. There's also like a .1 second delay turning the wheel. It gets bad through slaloms. It is very smooth on long highway travels thought (2+hr's of travel and you aren't nearly as tired because of all that steering wheel flinching). But idk if I could live with it. I'd probably have to get a manual rack if I ever bought a car like that.

 

Ahh, another Motor Week watcher.... Don't know the answer but wondered the same thing after seeing it.

 

Well we can assume that a cable pully system + spring does not open the throttle anymore because there is no direct link. A new possibility is the throttle is opened by a servo motor according to a voltage given by the gas petal + the ecu. If that is the case turning the servo while it is off is not only hard but could mess up it's "zero point" or position calibration as it opens. This would result in bad petal / engine response.

That makes the most sense in terms of requiring the car to be on and the petal to be depressed. This way the throttle body will open on it's own accord rather than being forced open and rotated by a flat head screw driver. You still want to keep the actual engine off.

 

Yikes! I think total cost was $10-$18 for the maf cleaner & throttle body cleaner.

 

Thanks for such a easy to understand write up.

 

This is awesome. I have been meaning to do this for a while. got MAF cleaner, didnt purchase the throttle body cleaner. yet.thanks for the write up. very clear explanation! ijit proof! i hope!!!!

 

Great write up. Just got done doing this today. I only have 42K on my 06' but it was still pretty nasty. I went ahead and removed the secondary air filter while it was all taken apart. My truck idled high after coming to a stop at first, but it eventually went away. I am assuming the computer had to "re-learn" everything.

 

I am a new owner of an 06 with 148K. Did the TB/MAF clean and changed the plugs in about 3 hours thanks to the write ups here. Thank you for creating such a well written procedure.

Brent

 

My 2008 has 40,000 miles on it now. Should I do this now? It seems pretty easy to do, even for someone like me that is not mechanically inclined. As for the filter oil, how much is too much? When I spray it, it is not dripping, but I do coat the entire filter with the oil.

OP, thanks for the original post.

 

You only use filter oil on the K&N filter(not on a paper filter). And use the cleaning kit they make for it. Follow the instructions on the kit.

 

This is a great mod. I did it the other day. I bet my truck hasn't been touched in 120k miles. The throttle body looked like the underside of a lawn mower. I always thought it was the computer and fuel injection system not letting my engine de-rev on shifts. My 5spd standard shifts like a dream now. Best part to clean in my opinion.

Car turned over for almost 30 seconds before starting after though. XD. Starts easy now & accelerates really smoothly. Wonder if there will be any MPG increases. But honestly i don't care if there are, because the driving smoothness is worth it alone.

 

Just did mine at 96k, it deff needed it and runs great again. Super easy, huge thanks, love TW!

 

Just did mine at 87000, man it was dirty! Cleaned the MAF too, idles better, feels better, accelerates better, thanks for the great write-up!

 

brother now this is a keeper,had poor exceleration from the light even after a few min of driving but this was excellent,i did it this morning and man exactly what you said happened it stuttered a few rev the all of a sudden,bam my baby ran like it just came off the lot,74,000+ miles and felt like a new horse was under the hood no hesitation or bad vibes at all,jumps off the light now...great write up,keep giving it up for us all you tech support,.....cudos to ya...i'm outa here to run my baby a little more..............2007 tacoma/prerunner sr5/4.0/auto no mods except the stereo,not really an off roader,but like the style....keep truckin peace