read a few posts over the years relating to dirty throttle body, but never understood them. At 60000 miles, should this be attempted by the average guy or just leave it alone if it aint broke?

Anybody got any pics addressing where is it, what makes it dirty, how to open it, what to clean it with and how often as preventive maintenance?

 

I just did mine and being old school where I rebuilt Holley 4 barrel carbs this was much less involved.

I have an 04 5.4 and had an engine low idle issue. After changing the fuel filter, cleaning my KN air filter and cleaning the MAF sensor I still had the problem. My next move was to clean the TB.

I disconnected to negative battery post. I removed the 10mm bplt that hold the air tunnel that mounts to the air filter box on one and to the fender wall. Once you remove the bolt the tunnel is easy to remove by hand. I then removed the air filter housing removing the (4) 10mm bolts. Then I disconnected all the connectors that went to the air filter box and throttle body. There are three electrical connectors and one vacuum. Now remove the (4) 10mm bolts that secure the TB. Finally remove the O-ring seal between the TB to intake. Now you are ready to clean.

Use Throttle body cleaner ONLY. Also clean your MAF sensors using ONLY MAF sensor cleaner. Just follow the instructions on the cans. Pretty cut and dry.

Now you are ready to reassemble. I had to wait a day for Autozone to order the O-ring seal. But it was 5x less than what the Ford place wanted.

When I got done my low idle issue was gone. Also Many people have gone to dry air filters instead of oiled ones. Many complaints about dirty TB and MAF sensors due to this oil type filter. I put a new stock air filter for now but will probably get an AEM dry filter soon.

I did not take pictures so I can't help on that issue. LOL

 

Thanks for info will do my 05 4.6 and I hope it will solve same issue

 

Thanks, that helped a lot!

 

I'm getting ready to do this soon and was wondering if there was a torque on the throttle body bolts?

 

Per AllDataDIY:
10.Install the TB and tighten the bolts in 2 stages.
•Stage 1: Tighten to 9 Nm (80 inch lbs.) .
•Stage 2: Tighten an additional 90 degrees .

 

Is it normal for a MAF to be dirty? I pulled mine out to 'clean' one day, but it looked pretty clean. THe inside of the throttle body looked clean too.

67K on the rig and I've never touched it until now. Everything is stock.

It idles a bit rough though... I'm going to try swapping out the plugs in a few weeks to see if that makes any diff.

 

the maf should look clean but will have a galvanized look to it. the slightest amount of crud on the sensor will throw it off.
I've cleaned them on cars that ran and idled ok only to have them run better. its worth the $4 for the cleaner if you have any drivability issues.

 

I also was having issues with the idle on my 4.6, especially with A/C on. Cleaned MAF sensor and the throttle body, which had a lot of carbon built up on back side of butterfly, now runs great! Pretty easy to do if your truck is idleing poorly.I also took out that dreaded whisling TB spacer after bout 4 years, kinda sick of hearing that thing.

 

Do you have to replace the TB to intake gasket or can you re-use it?

 

I did not need to replace my gasket.

 

The gasket/o-ring cost $2.29 at your local parts store - Not Ford - they want $6-8 bucks

I would definitely replace it... You don't want issues because you couldn't fess up $2.29

IMHO - Why do only 75% of a job?

 

Of course all the local shops don't carry mine.

 

Nor do mine.. Autozone - 4-5 days, Advanced 4-5 days, Napa - next day! I actually had them get me 2... so next time I will have one.

Considering how dirty mine was @ 84,000 miles. I am going to make this a 20K maintenance task.

-CS-

 

I know its been awhile since anyone posted to this thread, i thought i would just revive it again as i just cleaned my throttle body tonight.
its an 04 fx3 3v, wifeys truck. the truck was idling awfully low turning into parking spaces, driveway etc.. anywhere where you were turning and braking at the same time the rpms were dipping under 500 and on some occasions it would stall out. so i took 5 minutes and removed the throttle body and got out the crc throttle body cleaner and went to it, it was awfully cruddy with not only the ususal black residue but also tan milky watery deposits in the body and down the plastic intake runner. after cleaning well and reinstalling the truck performs great, in fact it never has held such nice idle since i owned it. turns out the milky residue is coming from the pvc pipe that goes into the throttle body, my wife takes the kids to bus stop and the truck doesnt get up to temps on those trips. anyway i just wanted to add to the postings. Not a hard job to do at all and well worth the time spent.