I have a 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution that needs a throttle body/IAC cleaning. I know there are DIY cleaning products out there but, my mechanic said he would put it in the “ultrasonic” cleaner. Is there any benefit to paying him to clean it vs. doing it myself?
He said it would take an hour and cost me $150.
Thanks so much!
Hen
Probably not in reality.
The area of “build up” that needs cleaning - is area you cannot see without removing the throttle body - so…in the event you opt to do it yourself - make sure you order a new gasket for the reassembly process.
Tom,
Thanks for the reply, and for coincidentally running into me last night at
the space!
I really want to have this done as soon as possible, and would clearly need
a volunteer to help show me how to do it… plus I still need to order the
(although very inexpensive) parts.
Also, unfortunately I had already scheduled an appointment to have it done
today, that’s what I get for jumping the gun.
I’ll suck it up and pay the $150, and watch the guy do it and ask as MANY
questions as I can think of.
In the future, I would like to become more of a part of the community up
there at the space.
I am a drummer and woodworker so that is my main impetus but, now that I
have another Evo, I will be increasingly interested in the automotive
section of the shop. It’s an AWD turbo car and is very expensive to have
someone work on.
At any rate, please feel free to call/text me whenever, I’m here to learn!
Take care,
Hen
Hey Henry,
you may want to obfuscate your phone number. Talk is searched/crawled by web search engines and you’re opening yourself up to spam calls/texts.
Thanks for the tip friends!
number removed!
Henry,
It was great to put a name with a face and meet you last night.
Please reply here with the results of your throttle body cleaning.
P.S. The automotive section will have several classes on the calendar in the next few days. Mostly basic vehicle related items, and more covering maintenance / routine repair.
Here is a warning about cleaning throttle bodies:
When using liquid spray cleaners like I did on the Mazda, take care to fully understand the shape of your air intake manifold. I used a generous amount of this fluid, and it accumulated in a physically lower portion of the intake manifold. In fact, I must have emptied the whole can, maybe even a second when cleaning because the car had 115000 miles on it and had never been cleaned. Also, the results were dramatic while cleaning, and there were these EGR tubes set back a bit from where I took off the TB portion with butterfly valve.
Sadly, I could not see that fluid was accumulating at the back of the manifold, so I did not realize that there was a nice sized puddle back there. But I found out when I started the car. You see, I will never be 100% sure if this was the cause, but I ultimately had to replace the engine due to bent rod (likely hydrolock condition was cause).
Be careful and clean your throttle body well such that the butterfly valves move unrestricted and any EGR tubes or idle air tubes are free of carbon. Then also be sure no fluid has accumulated in the air intake manifold as a result of the cleaning. Cylinders don’t like fluids when the engine is running…who knew?
You missed the part where I said he would have to remove the throttle body to clean it properly…
The air intake manifold and throttle body are two separate things?
My throttle body was off, but Mazda had created a rats nest of tubes out of the KLZE manifold behind throttle body which I fully removed and cleaned throttle body as expected. There are 3 butterfly valves, 1 in throttle body and two way back in the manifold. One of these valves is PAST the EGR valve. These are there and open and close at various RPM speeds to remove resonance that supposedly occur with this engine across the RPM usable spectrum. There are also tubes from the EGR that fill up with carbon, so the suggested strategy was to take care to reach a brush back into manifold and clean them out so that EGR gasses can properly flow…
Nobody bothered to warn me to remove the entire intake manifold, which on this car is a major pain!..lol
But I guess with some cars this may actually be advisable.
On most recip engines yes, gas & diesel