Cleaning the Throttle Body

[mike5411]

Hey guys

It's been a long time since I have posted here. As a matter of fact, I don't know if I have posted since I got my 09 G6 coupe GT. I have had her for two years now and this morning I got an oil change. I currently have 18930 miles on her and my service manager suggested I should clean my throttle body since that is usually done around 15000 miles. He said it would cost 62 dollars. I declined and told him to only do an oil change today. Is this something that I should get done, can I do it myself, or was he simply trying to upsell me something.

Thanks,
Mike

[LoJac963]

Re: Cleaning the Throttle Body

buy yourself a can of throttle body cleaner for 6 bucks and spray it in there yourself. The small amount of dirt you'll see in the TB really won't affect anything at all and will likely come back after a few miles are put back on the car anyways.

$62 to clean a TB is ridiculous in my book!

[mike5411]

Re: Cleaning the Throttle Body

buy yourself a can of throttle body cleaner for 6 bucks and spray it in there yourself. The small amount of dirt you'll see in the TB really won't affect anything at all and will likely come back after a few miles are put back on the car anyways.

$62 to clean a TB is ridiculous in my book!

Thanks for quick reply. I thought 62 dollars sounded high for something nominal. I wasn't sure since my dealer never has tried to upsell me anything in the past. I guess that's why they are called stealerships. ;-)

[LoJac963]

Re: Cleaning the Throttle Body

^lol exactly, unless you're having issues that specifically point at the TB being filthy then I wouldn't worry about it

[CaptRage]

Re: Cleaning the Throttle Body

I don't know how bad the TB gets in our cars, but I had to clean it on my wife's truck ('04 Colorado), It was all nasty inside and just spraying TB cleaner was not going to help. The TB had to be removed and I scrubbed it out with a toothbrush and a whole can of TB cleaner. It was throwing codes and stopped once it was clean.

$62 does not sound like a bad price if they did what I did, but it is probably not needed, especially at 15k miles.

[Altered6]

Re: Cleaning the Throttle Body

My car has 35 000kms/22,000miles on it now and I recently had the clunky Intermediate Steering Shaft replaced. While it was in the shop I requested that my mechanic clean the throttle body and the MAF sensor. When I picked up my car he mentioned that the throttle body was in fact very dirty and that it was a good idea to have it cleaned periodically (this may be different for you depending on your weather/temp and driving conditions. I spend most of my driving time on shorter trips, idling in traffic in cooler rainy weather). For this he charged less than $20 plus shop supplies and I'm glad I had it done as with my previous FI cars throttle response was greatly improved and there is a noticeable improvement in power.

If you want to try this without spending much it can be a fairly easy and inexpensive do-it-yourself job. As LoJac mentions the cleaner is $6 per can and you'll need an old toothbrush and some rags. Then you will know first hand what this procedure is worth.

IMHO this is an under rated detail of routine maintenance.