I've got 193k on my 96 jeep and it ran steady it just didn't seem to be living up to its potential so I decided to clean the throttle body.

Don't use carb cleaner, its a shortcut, and i puts all that crap in your throttle body down into the engine where it gums up something else. Its just four bolts and removing the sensors then dishwashing detergent and a toothbrush. You don't get dishpan hands and that stuff really breaks up the crap in there. I still use a little carb cleaner on the hard to reach areas like the IACV but never down the TB while its running. If you had seen the crap that fell out of that thing you would shake your head at the crap you flushed down the engine.

So anyways Dishwashing detergent is the POOP! Use carb cleaner sparingly, And SAY NO to dishpan hands.....

Oh and I know I'm a newbie but I figure I'll do a write up with pics this weekend with detailed disassembly instructions to help out the next guy.

 

Yeah a DIY would be great!!

Thanks!

 

I always remove the throttle plate to clean it... I still use carb spray.

We had an automatic parts-washer at my last dealership that used concentrated dishsoap and heated (230 degree) water to clean parts. It was especially nice with transmission cases.

I'm surprised that dishsoap did so well. My guess it's actually the "scrubbing" that cleaned it, not the chemical used. Try it next time with the same technique and hot water.

SJ

 

Dish soap is designed to break up grease and oils, so it does pretty well with that kind of stuff. It's what we usually use to clean up our hands after a day of wrenching on a vehicle and it works quite well. We usually don't have to resort to the pumice soaps unless we've gotten into something really nasty that won't come off.

 

w00t same same .. Dawn FTW!! Wife still gets pissed after 10 years getting her Dawn bottle greasy!! lol .. Have always used dish soap works even better then Goop, Gojo, Fast Orange, etc. hand cleaners IMO!!

 

X2 once it is off then you won't be flushing it into the engine any more, Right? So I use it like crazy and then use this Lysol all-purpose stuff that I use in the parts cleaner that is great.

 

Use carb cleaner like crazy? I used to get it at orielly's for 99 cents for the value brand every once and a while when it was on sale. I went to AutoZone here in CommieFornia and it was 2.50 for the really cheap stuff. I bought a can cause some stuff you just can't get too and you need the carb cleaner (like the little hole where the MAF hooks up, or the IACV). But dish soap is cheap and a bottle last forever. I always use it to clean up when I'm done so I figured I could just clean my TB in the kitchen sink and it would cut the stuff in the TB as well as it does the gunk on my hands. Its a cheap very effective alternative to the carb cleaner.

Oh and I wish I had a parts cleaner.

 

How about spraying the carb clean down the tbi while the truck is running just don't do this inside oor down wind of your open house windows will smoke + smell that's all that crap burning up this is how we always did it back in the carb days and I've still been using this methoid today I've been a profesial wrench for over 30 Yrs jusst need to have enough so it makes it to the combustion chamber so it may be burnt up like I said don't do this inside it smells horibile you will never stop coughing but nothing cleans like fire

 

Carb cleaner is perfectly safe.

It's been used by everyone and their bother for years without blowing up brazillions of motors.

 

Woah. Reading that with no caps or punctuation gave me a bigger headache than breathing the carb cleaner fumes would have.

The idea is to clean the throttle body and butterfly along with the IAC motor and it's seat. Spraying through the TB with carb cleaner with the engine running does not accomplish that task well at all. Scrubbing is needed to do it correctly.

 

Yeah the TB is super easy to remove and a new gasket is like $2, so just take it off to clean it. Mine wasn't so dirty that cleaning it still on the engine would have hurt anything; it's just so much easier to clean it off the engine.

I used to use carb cleaner, but have heard that some throttle bodies have like a teflon coating on them that carb cleaner can hurt. Not sure if that's true or if it applies to our 4.0's, but just to be safe I decided to pick up some CRC "throttle body and air intake cleaner" that's supposed to be safe on those coatings. It's a couple bucks more than plain old carb cleaner but what the heck.

 

pulled TB
pulled IAC and TPS
carb cleaner
carb cleaner
carb cleaner
reassemble
reinstall
happy.
the only invented TB cleaner recently. they say carb cleaner will gum up TB cause it leaves a residue. idk, got plenty of miles on it after cleaning and shes good to go in that department. idk anyone who would clean the TB while its on the rig... thats no good... like that guy on that mustang forum, his post read: "ok, i drained all oil out, put garden hose in and flushed w/ water. ran it w/ some water in there to help pull out the rest of old oil... now it wont run. why?" idk how this fits in this thread, but its good for a laugh...

 

We don't have teflon coatings on our TBs and TB cleaner came out because carb cleaner wasn't safe for oxygen sensors.