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throttle body service


2011edgese

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This is for those who want to do it themselves. It was easy on my 2011 awd edge. Just 2 8mm socket clamps. They come off, and 2 vacuum lines. One vacuum line is a special clip type. The other just pulls off. Once you have the boot off completely, its saturated and dripping with oil. I just hosed it clean with efi cleaner and wiped it dry. Sprayed efi throttle body cleaner on the butterfly flap and with a soft tooth brush, I scrubbed it clean. Wiped it dry. Then I took off the MAF sensor. It's a rectangular box on the air filter side box. 2 special torq screws come off and gently pull it out. Once it was out, inspect it for cracks or any visible damage. Mines looked in great shape. But I still went ahead and Sprayed it with MAF cleaner. I gave it a good 8 burst spray on all the entries of the sensor. The spray has to be MAF cleaner. Nothing else! That maf cleaner dries up fast. Then put it back in and tighten up the torq screws. Then reverse install put the boot and tightened the clamps, plug the 2 vacuum hoses.. Started up the car and it hesitated for 2 seconds, but fired up. Drove it and noticed it was way more responsive than before! The slightest gentle push of the gas pedal. .... VROOOOOM! it reacts strong!

 

So they're you have it! Not a hard job at all. Took me a total of 15 minutes. I wish I took pictures bit I didn't since I just wanted to finish it. But you should have seen the inside the boot! I would say at least 6 table spoons of oil in there. Luckily. .. The oil never touched the maf sensor since the vacuum sucks out in away from the MAF sensor.

Edited by 2011edgese
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If you got a edge with over 60k miles and never done a air filter with a throttle body service, I highly recommend you to do it. Doing those 2 items made my car run like never before. I would say I gained the lost hp I got used too. My closest estimate would be around 8 to 10 hp. Because I can feel the very good responsive and stronger pull.

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Also. .. on the maf sensor, people use a q tip on it. Mines wasn't really dirty, so I just sprayed it. But I've been reading and some people say that just spreading it won't clean it. That you need to some how agitate the grim a bit with something. It looks fragile so I stayed away from touching it. Anyone or there tried to scrub it somw how?

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No touching the maf sensor wires. Too fragile, as you rightly said. If you choose to use one gently, you have to test voltages with a wire piercing probe afterwards to confirm continuity.

 

A process you can try, if you are ready to buy a replacement MAF:

 

https://www.louv.tv/cars/m5/MAF/

Edited by WWWPerfA_ZN0W
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I took it out again yesterday. and sprayed the death out of it again with MAF cleaner.lol. Could be placebo. But I swear. ... After servicing and changing the air filter. . Car is more responsive. and another thing I noticed last night, I can hold rpm at 1500 steady, that's something I could not do before always fluctuate above or below but never steady.

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First of all, the shop manual very specifically states that you should NEVER clean the throttle body, since it has some kind of special "coating". I'm not saying it's not still a good idea, just that there is the potential that you can make things worse. At some point there is probably more benefit to removing gunk vs protecting the coating, but who knows just how much gunk that needs to be?

 

As for your perception of improved performance, I think as WWWPerfA stated, it's just the PCM suddenly seeing different settings and it will compensate over time to bring it back to where it was before.

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Let's see what happens over time. After I cleaned the MAF, it felt better, but the feeling didn't last very long, so maybe the PCM is doing a "minor" relearn as it adjusts to the improved MAF input.

funny you mention this. I noticed instantly after I cleaned it that the car was too responsive. Like I barely touch. . The padel.. And it wants to take off. A feather woulds make it move! Now after driving it. . It feels more natural. So I suspect you are correct, it's relearning. I'm going to put a full tank of had and see if I gained any mpgs.

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First of all, the shop manual very specifically states that you should NEVER clean the throttle body, since it has some kind of special "coating". I'm not saying it's not still a good idea, just that there is the potential that you can make things worse. At some point there is probably more benefit to removing gunk vs protecting the coating, but who knows just how much gunk that needs to be?

 

As for your perception of improved performance, I think as WWWPerfA stated, it's just the PCM suddenly seeing different settings and it will compensate over time to bring it back to where it was before.

that's crazy! You should have seen the oil inside the boot and inside the butterfly flap. Just saturated. Im aware of the protective coating on the throttle body. I used the efi throttle body cleaning and just sprayed it and wiped it clean. On the flap.. I used a very soft tooth brush brittle and gently scrubbed it. And very gently. Then rewiped and put everything back together. So far. .. It's been a very noticeable different! It feels a lot more responsive and idles smoothly. It's very fun to drive. Lol. Love the stock sound from the exhaust is just right. .. Not loud or dim. Just a smooth rumble. But I wonder what the dealer would do to clean the oil off the both and throttle body, I sure they would use something. I doubt they would ignore it and leave the oily mess inside and say they serviced it. Id be pissed I'd they didn't clean it if I payed them to service it. But yeah. .. use the right cleaner! Don't go crazy and use carburetor or brake cleaner! That I would suspected would eat everything inside. Also. .. I didn't go crazy and sprayed it at full force from the can. I let it barely mist out and then wiped it with new soft cotton rags. I used the tooth brush to get the rim of the flap, that's because the efi throttle cleaner wasn't cutting the grime off. So I had to use it. And again. . Very gently. I personally think it really helped the idle and responsiveness.

 

So again. .. user the proper spray cans. Not brake cleaner!

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Well I did some reading. There's different opinions on cleaning Ford only throttle bodies. Some people say to not clean them. And others say it's perfectly fine to clean then with efi throttle body cleaners. But everyone says to not clean then with carb cleaners or brake cleaners since that will strip off the Teflon like coating. One tech said he had cleaned many special coated throttle bodies with efi throttle body cleaner and never had a failure. But the keylike Llike to stay away from using cleaners other than efi throttle body cleaners and avoud using hard bristle brushes. Lol. I used a very soft brittle toothbrush, only on the ridge I'd the flap. So from my own experience, this helped a lot. But. ... I'll keep a eye on the throttle body and see if it builds carbon deposits faster. Apparently that's what the special coating does, prevent deposits from collecting.

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Found this on another forum. Made me laugh. Lol

 

http://m.f150forum.com/showthread.php?t=94197&styleid=20

 

"Just get a can of TB cleaner and an old toot brush and clean away. Ford doesn't want you to clean the TB so they can sell you a new one. They do have a coating on them that helps minimize the carbon buildup so get something safe for coated throttle bodies. Usually a good idea to pull the negative battery cable while your doing it so the PCM can account for any changes the cleaning caused."

Edited by 2011edgese
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Ok... From reading lots on this topic. Looks like avoid using any scrubbing utensils. And you can use special coat safe tb cleaner. I used a very soft toothbrush on the edge of the flap. And used it gently. So hopefully my coat is still there. Lol. Car is running so much smoother though. So im please.

 

Knock on faken wood!

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If the toothbrush cannot be trusted, wrap a nice microfiber cloth around it. That is sure not to damage the TB plate. When I last looked at the TB a couple of months ago, I saw a light golden color on it, but no heavy oiling or crusting. Left it alone at that point.

that's a healthy tb. If mines was like that, I would have not touched it. Mines had a dark ring on the plate edge. Sticky. And a trail of oil running from the pvc to the plate. So I had to clean it. Just looked awful! And it was impeding performance!

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It's simple - ford can't guarantee that you're using a safe product so they just recommend not to do it at all. CYA

well if we use that logic, then we should not buy anything because Ford doesn't know what we are buying. So we can't buy car wash soap cause we might ruin the paint, we can't my brake cleaner because we will ruin the brakes, we can't buy interior conditioner for the seats because we might ruin the seats, we can't buy tires because it doesn't know what kind of this and we're going to ruin the car. In other words we can't buy nothing for the car we paid for because we're going to ruin it. Really, we can read and there's safe products out there that will get rid of the carbon buildup without removing the protective coating. am i right or am I being a bad customer.
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But isn't it kinda funny that most customers that go to dealers end up hating dealers? Not only just ford but every other dealer out there. Could it be because they tend to not take responsibility for warranty job and they push the people away and wait until the warranty expires and then instantly give you a diagnosis with the price. But if its under warranty then don't worry go home its normal. people call them Steelers instead of dealers for a reason

Edited by 2011edgese
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Update! My car throttle body caught fire. Don't know why! I was just driving and it stated to sputter like if the throttle was being tapped fast on and off. The I heard a crack with a squeal. Then my idle was non existent! Next thing I knew, the inside cabin started to smell like burning metal! I jumped out and open the hood and low and behold. ............. my throttle body was spring flames! And the butterfly flap was spinning 360 like the freaking exorcist girl! What the hell! All I could do was grab my cheap 50 cent bottle of water from my center console and rushed to spill itb in the throat of the throttle bottle! I'm telling you! I couldn't get the water to come out fast! I jugged it up and down while I called on the Holy Spirit to expel the demon from it! I prayed and prayed while I threw the water and commanded the evil spirit to release the throttle body! I said. .. " begone wretched demon! Go to the depts of hell where you came from! I command you to tell me you name demon! " then. .. silence. The fire was gone.

Thanks Ford. Your freaking tephlon special coating is garbage!

 

NOTE from moderator: This was not a real incident. There was no fire. And this was not funny.

Edited by akirby
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