Well, whatever you do, don't let the dealer talk you into needing new TB's and then, when that doesn't work, a new ECU on top of it.
It has happened!

 

Yeah they just called me about an hour ago telling me that I need to put the stock I take back on the car and maybe that's why is having a high idle lol,even though cars been like that (with the intake and coolant lines bypassed) for few months and I didn't had a problem until I mess with the TBs-I told them to do a ecu reflash and tb air relearn and such and call me.

 

Good call.

I think the cars can only handle small incremental variations in airflow with the stock ecu relearn code. If your cleaning results in greater airflow variation (before vs. after) than can be "understood" and adjusted for, it just fails to stick. It seems like all the workarounds that the shops use are basically ways to "cheat" the idle down in increments that can be assimilated by the ecu.

The one interesting variation on the "cheat" was the one where you force a fault on the MAFs first, and then clear and proceed with the relearn. I wondered if it opened up a broader table of readjustment values in the ECU which then allowed the relearn to stick.

The good news is that this is should not be new to the dealership techs anymore. The problem is not unusual and has been happening for years. They should all have a bag of tools within their knowledge that covers these crazy idle issues. The real question is if they start going by the boohk and just blind swapping good hardware before they get to the real problem (i.e. the ecu relearn function itself).

 

Just came back from the dealer from picking my car and she's good to go,and I don't get the "common whiplash on take off's anymore"but them Throtlle cleans are some significant amount of improvement.Thanks to the guys that did their best to chime in on my issue and especially "Vqsmile" you're awesome brother.

 

Quick question...

I recently cleaned my throttle bodies and couldn't help but notice the spring sound coming from both the Left and Right TB, when moving them around or tapping on them. Is the spring noise supposed to be audible or am I dealing with something that needs to be addressed? Luckily, the plates are squeaky clean now

 

I GOT IT TO RELEARN - HERE'S MORE INFO ON HOW YOU KNOW IT RELEARNED.

car: 2006 g35 6mt
cleaning throttle procedure: I unplugged battery only, used my fingers to flip open butterfly, and had the jumping RPM, CEL, and high idle.

I won't list out the relearn procedure here - but I tried a few times and realize a lot of people made the mistake during the "five gas pedal within 5 seconds" step. Remember to still count the 5 seconds before moving onto the next 7 seconds gas pedal. I made the mistakes each time to just quickly pump the gas pedal for 5 seconds then jump onto the next step.

You will know when you get it right when the idle will start below the 1000rpm. You will clearly know.

Also, when the CEL is blinking, the relearning blink is different. If your blink is just blinking a few times then lights up, you didn't do it right. When the CEL was blinking during the relearn, it was blinking at different speeds, and at a moment it paused blinking, then blinks again. So the CEL blinking is different too.

Again, keep trying, my car is back to normal and man, what a difference in driving - well worth the trouble.

 

Hi guys, when im at a stop, my car's idle suddenly goes down for 1 or 2 sec and goes back up. it almost feels the car is gonna stall. hasn't stalled up until now, but it is a recurring issue.
is anyone having this problem or did have this problem? i plan on cleaning my throttle bodies but im **** scared due to all these new problems occurring after cleaning the bodies.
Thanks.

 

109k miles - cleaned the TBs today. I bought this car ('08 X) off of my sister and have almost all of the service records (she had it serviced at her local Infiniti dealer) and cleaning these is not something they even try and upsell from what I've seen. I do recall a record indicating that the TBs were possibly replaced at some point (going to verify).

Anyway, it went well. Reason for doing this was I would randomly get an idle drop when I'd stop at a red light or similar. Never stalled and if I wasn't watching the tach, I can't say I would notice (radio on and it doesn't 'shake' like some experience).I had cleaned the MAFs earlier this week as well. I pretty much followed this DIY and didn't disconnect the battery nor the TB connections. These were filthy too ! The passenger-side TB was quite a bit worse than the driver-side as well, but that seems to be typical (closer to the PCV). I got them better than they were, I feel, but there's still a slight ring - less than there was - where the valve sits when closed. I did open the valve very slightly and used a Q-Tip, which almost immediately turned black ! I'd really like to do this cleaning a 2nd time and work on those rings more. Put everything back together, started right up, no SES light, and the idle seems okay. No re-learning done, no ECU reset, etc, etc. On the drive home, it felt good. I want to say it felt improved but I'm a firm believer that people want to feel a difference and in turn will even when nothing is different. I also felt like there was an improvement just from cleaning the MAFs. Going to work, taking the same route, in a couple of spots where I ease into the throttle after a full turn, it felt smoother.

At the end of the day, if the idle drop is taken care of, I'll consider it a success.

 

^ I cleaned my TB when I changed my valve covers a month ago. It honestly wasn't that dirty at 93k on the clock. I've heard that ford doesn't recommend cleaning because there's a special coating that will be removed with strong cleaners. Of course if you're having idle issues it's one thing to cross off the list

 

Drove around a fair amount today and it really seems much better. Instead of getting an occasional drop in idle RPM of maybe 100-150 rpm, I do see the needle drop ever so slightly but I'd guess it's less than 50 rpm (may buy an ODBII adapter just for fun and I'd be able to see this more accurately).

Part of me wants to clean them a 2nd time but I also figure, leave well enough alone !! I do believe a 2nd cleaning could be done without removing the TBs and I would really just focus on that 'ring' where the butterfly valve is positioned when closed. I shouldn't ask, but two things....

1) What could I use instead of a towel/rag to clean that ring ? I used a towel to clean 90% of the parts, including the plenum inlet, and only used the Q-Tip on the valve and the ring. I pushed the valve open just wider than the Q-Tip tip but I didn't get courageous enough to do that until I had re-installed the TB so it was real difficult to get the 'top' part.
2) Any ideas on what could be used to hold the valve open (slightly) ? Other than a finger....

 

Thanks for the thread. Great info on how to clean a throttle body.

 

 

 

I'm pretty confident that people with idle problems introduced unmetered air into their engines. Also, many people are cleaning because of idle problems. I'll be doing this soon, I'm near 100k and sometimes idle gets crabby.

The real question is: how did the dealer fix the problem? Replace a gasket maybe? Recalibrate?

You own a luxury car and you're crying about $170 at the dealer? You got out easy guy.

 

Well, this DIY is somewhat wrong. OP says to move the butterfly while the TB connector and battery are still connected. That is guaranteed to throw off the settings. It is much easier to simply disconnect the battery first, than clean the TB.