One of the few remaining serviceable components in gasoline engines is the throttle body. Here’s why your mechanic wants to clean it.
The tune-up, as it was once known, has come and gone. Nobody misses it. Yet, we all knew what a tune-up entailed after nearly a century of paying for them.
In modern cars, many maintenance intervals have extended almost to the life of the car. It may need its oil changed once or twice a year, and there is a cabin air filter to change a few times on your way to 100,000 miles, but there’s not much more to do until the big single service involving a timing belt change and spark plugs at around that point.
However, there is one component that mechanics like to clean when cars run rough, have a rough idle, or out of an abundance of caution. They like to clean your throttle body.
Your engine is a giant air pump. Outside air enters through the air intake at the front of your vehicle and then travels through the engine air cleaner element. That helps remove dust and debris so that it doesn’t enter the combustion chamber and cause trouble. The air then flows through a tube to the throttle. The throttle is what controls the airflow into the engine and the assembly that houses and works with the throttle is known as the throttle body.
Years ago, there would’ve been a carburetor where the throttle body is. A carburetor also metered the volume of air that went into the combustion chambers, but it served a second purpose, too: It mixed air and gasoline into a fine mist. Modern engines directly inject fuel into the combustion chambers via fuel injectors, so the throttle body is only a valve that allows air to pass.
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Although the air cleaner element does remove solids, there’s a lot going on under the hood that can cause gunk to form, which can impede the smooth operation of the throttle. Mechanics will use a solvent spray, and sometimes a brush, to remove the gunk and free up the throttle so it works freely.
In certain situations, this is a first step in solving problems. There is an mass air flow (MAF) sensor and a throttle position sensor (TPS) that can fail and cause similar running conditions, but they are more expensive than a shot of solvent. Mechanics often start with the cleaning.
Every throttle also has a mechanism to actuate it based on the demands of the driver’s right foot and the signals from the engine. In older cars, like this 1992 Miata, it is a mechanical throttle linkage — literally, a cable connected to the gas pedal that yanks the throttle open. In all new cars, it is an electronic throttle body actuator, which replaces the mechanical cable with a wire that sends electrical impulses to the throttle body actuator, telling it to open and close.
Anything that moves is likely to stop moving eventually. Some popular cars have had issues with the electronic throttle body. So keeping the throttle clean is always a wise preventative maintenance step.
Throttle Body Problems
The question is whether the service cost is worth it. RepairPal.com suggests that a throttle body cleaning costs between $226 and $290. What’s interesting to note is the price of parts: $6 to $12, the low estimate of which is about twice the cost of a can of CRC Throttle Body Cleaner at your average auto parts store.
Cleaning a throttle body is a lot simpler than changing your oil. If you can follow simple instructions and depress the button a spray can, you can do it yourself. For three bucks and five minutes worth of work, you might be able to save yourself hundreds of dollars in labor charges with a mechanic.
Image Credits: Top of page image by John Goreham. Second image courtesy of Ford.
I get TONS of email questions each week and I try my hardest to answer them all….actually I think I DO answer them all, but if I missed your question, so sorry.
How To Clean Electronic Throttle Body
This question comes up more than just about anything else and it has to do with throttle body cleaning.
So, I made this video for all of you that will come to my site in the future looking for this information.
![]() What is the throttle body?
In total layman’s terms, the throttle body is where fresh air from the air filter enters the engine. If you follow the large plastic hose from the air filter box to the end and removed the hose from the throttle body (that is what it is attached to :)) you will be able to look inside the throttle body and see a large valve.
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That valve moves as you depress the gas pedal, and allows more air, or less to enter the engine.
Throttle Body Problems Symptoms
I want you to watch the video below in a minute, so I am not going to add a picture here.
Why Clean a Throttle Body?
Symptoms of a dirty throttle body are these:
1. Slower starts, with more engine cranking time than normal
2. Rough idle speeds – erratic “hunting and picking” as idle speed fluctuates up and down trying to find a steady speed.
3. Engine dying at idle and or slow speed – because the TB is dirty the metal vane inside can not fully close and has basically an air leak causing the engine to die.
How often should you clean a throttle body?
I have mine cleaned about every 30,000 miles. I personally think it improves idle speed and makes for a more comfortable idle and quicker start ups. Using premium grade fuel can also help reduce the gunk that gets deposited inside the TB…but might not be worth the extra expense over cheaper regular grade which I personally use. Emergency call 112 download.
The video above shows my truck getting a throttle body cleaning, its pretty easy to do and you can do it yourself if you want. Achtung panzer no. 3 panzerkampfwagen iv. Just use a cleaner or solvent that is made for upper intake cleaning so you don’t damage anything, ask your auto parts store.
Cost to clean a throttle body
Before I just throw out a number…Many shops now are adding other suggested repairs along with just cleaning the throttle body, because as you can see in the video its pretty easy to do and the shop can’t really make any money just doing that.
Sooooo they are smart capitalists, they combine other repairs, like cleaning the fuel injectors (naaaaa, you can pass on that they kept themselves very clean these days), or an upper intake chamber cleaning (naaaa, you can pass on that too, just use brand name gasoline and you will be ok) JUST get them to clean the throttle body AND the idle air motor IF your vehicle is equipped with one and it can be cleaned.
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If you can get them to just clean the throttle body and the idle air control motor (IAC) you will probably spend about $80-120 depending on where you live and the shop labor rates. Let them do their “intake cleaning” and you will easily spend/waste $225
Dear Car Talk:What the heck is a throttle body? We have a 2007 Toyota 4Runner with 85,000 miles and a 2011 Toyota Venza with 45,000 miles. Our local Toyota dealer is pushing us to service the “throttle body.” I agreed to do it on the 4Runner, but I want to check with you before agreeing to have the throttle body serviced on the Venza. Is this service mandated by Toyota? — Gary
A: No. It’s not mandated by Congress, either, Gary, despite what you may have read in school about the Fartkowsky-Schnurrer Throttle Body Cleaning Act of 1915.
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The throttle body is the device that regulates the amount of air that the engine is sucking in. When you step on the gas pedal, it sends a signal to the computer, which then sends a signal to a little electric motor in the throttle body. That electric motor moves the throttle plate and allows more or less air into the engine — depending on the position of the gas pedal.
Over time, the inside of the throttle body can get crudded up with carbon, and that can make the throttle plate get sticky and close unevenly. But if your throttle body had enough carbon in it to make your throttle plate sticky, you’d notice it: You’d notice a rough idle, surging or hesitation and stumbling when stepping on the gas. But you didn’t mention any of those things.
Plenty of cars go their entire lives without needing to have the throttle body cleaned. So I’m a little skeptical that your dealer wants to do it to both of your cars. I think you might be getting YOUR throttle body cleaned, Gary.
If you’re interested, ask the dealer why you need your throttle body cleaned. If he tells you he just recommends it as preventive maintenance, tell him thanks, but you’d rather buy a year of HBO. If he tells you he inspected it and saw carbon buildup, that’s at least a little more legitimate. But I’d still put it off until and unless you experience performance issues. It’ll cost you no more to clean the throttle body then, if that time ever comes, than it will cost you now.
Do you have a question about cars? Contact Ray through the website cartalk.com
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