Throttle Body cleaning?

They cleaned the TB on my wife's car claiming that it was the cause of her car running poorly but all that it accomplished was to clean our my wallet. They said that the one in my Ram also needed to be cleaned 50,000 miles ago and I laughed at them. It still runs fine and still gets 16 MPG at speeds in excess of 80 MPH at times.

At 66K it probably could use cleaning. I take the t/b off, take the ais motor out and clean the pintle and bore with Chem-tool. I can't imagine what their labor rate is to make it $200 tho. A gasket is about $5, the solvent is about $6 and an hours labor is more than enough time. Heck, 15-20 minutes would cover it most of the time unless the screws on the ais twist off.

Denny

Unless the engine stalls when you take your foot off the gas or has a hesitation or sag when you just start pressing the accelerator, you probably don't need the t/b cleaned. At 80 mph, the throttle plates are way past caring if the bore is dirty..

Denny

The only thing that needs to be cleaned on a TB that cannot be done well by simply aiming some everyday carb cleaner in there is the IAC plunger. If done carefully and without cycling the key, this can be accomplished by the average mechanic in about 30 minutes.

"" wrote: > Had my 2001 Ram 5.9L in for some work and the dealer gave the > usual list > of things I need to pay them for! They said the throttle body > needs to > be cleaned. Their charge is $200. They said its that high > because they > remove it for cleaning. > > Truck has 66K on it and runs fine. Is this something that > needs to be > done routinely and does it really take that much labor?

If it ain?t broke do not fix it. With todays better quality gasses, cleaning it rarely a issue. Dirt of the outside means little if anything to the inside of a TBI unit. I have one with 173K on it that is 16 years old and it has never been cleaned and it still does not need it either.

Not likely at all, a total waste of time, energy and money which some people seem to what to help you spend needlessly.

I clean mine every so often. If you look down the bores, you can see where the dirt collects. It disrupts the air flow at lowq rpm's and idle, and probably has no effect at speed. When you take it apart, you'll find dirt baked in to a lot of small passages. That can't be good. It doesn't take long, about an hour if you don't really know what you're doing.

The quality of today's fuels have nothing to do with, as there's no fuel anywhere near it.

I'm just curious, are there any other waste of time, energy and money maintenance items that you don't believe in doing???

Denny

LOL, yea, but it doesn't go that fast in the driveway, regardless of what my wife thinks.

You do not take apart and or clean a carb or TBI unit because someone tells you it is dirty when the vehical runs fine. (BTW 99% of the time they might get dirty on outside but it has no effect of operation) Cleaning a TBI unit is not a normal maintance item that must be done like oil changes and such. I have seen a lot of people get screwed by mech?s that tell that something is wrong that cost $$$$ to fix and puts money in mech?s pocket too. (I have seen this scam before) You chastise me because I want him to save his money and his time and spend it on more worthwhile endevors. How about if you (or someone else in this thread) pay to get it done for him if you guys think he needs it so bad?

Not chastising you at all, just asking a question. I understand that outside dirt on the t/b will not cause a problem but I have seem numerous times where a throttle plate will stick due to a crud build up in the throat of the t/b. Dirt build up will also cause a hesitation on accel or a stalling problem. What is wrong with inspecting a t/b when changing an air filter and letting a cust know if it is getting dirty enough to cause a problem?? When I do an oil change and notice a u-joint has play in it, is this also something that shouldn't be mentioned to the cust. After all, if it ain't broke-don't fix it. (your quote, not mine)

I understand there are scam artist shops out there. Every line of work has them. There are scam artist customers out there also that will lie thru their teeth to get something for free. That doesn't make them all dishonest.

Denny

classic case is the TB on the 2.9 Ferds as seen in Rangers, B-II's and Exploders

when you drop the rear of the engine to get the upper BH bolts out, all the crap inside the long inlet hose breaks loose and ends up in the IAS control passages