996 Throttle body cleaning

[Hilux2400]

Hello and I'm new to both the forum and to Porsche ownership. I have a normally aspirated 2003 Carrera 2S. I want to clean the throttle body.

On previous other cars I have just taken off the air cleaner and air flow meter and sprayed carb cleaner into the butterfly valve and moved it about a bit. After this I have wiped surplus off with a rag.

Can I do the same to the 996 or will moving the throttle manually in any way upset the engine codes?

Thanks

Hilux. Yes, my other car is an old Hilux

[Rockster]

Hilux2400 said:

Hello and I'm new to both the forum and to Porsche ownership. I have a normally aspirated 2003 Carrera 2S. I want to clean the throttle body.

On previous other cars I have just taken off the air cleaner and air flow meter and sprayed carb cleaner into the butterfly valve and moved it about a bit. After this I have wiped surplus off with a rag.

Can I do the same to the 996 or will moving the throttle manually in any way upset the engine codes?

Thanks

Hilux. Yes, my other car is an old Hilux

Leave the TB alone. There's no need to clean it. My 02 Boxster has run over 160K miles without having the TB off to clean.

If you must mess with the TB carefully remove it and use an aerosol can of TB or MAF/Electronics cleaner, one that doesn't leave a residue. The stuff I used dried without have to wipe any of the cleaner off the TB.

Do not move the butterfly valve about. While I do not know if the will harm the TB internals why risk it?

The one time I had the TB off my Boxster and found it dirty/oily (from a failing AOS) while I cleaned the TB I didn't mess with the butterfly valve.

Handle the TB with care, too. If you drop it...$$$.

[Hilux2400]

Thanks for the reply. Mine has only done 44K so the TB is probably best left alone.

Hilux

[thegoose]

Hilux2400 said:

Thanks for the reply. Mine has only done 44K so the TB is probably best left alone.

Hilux

I'm not sure mileage is relevant (as it isn't to most things) but if the car's running fine then leave it. I had a Boxster S with (from memory) a lower number on the odometer than that but it was "hunting" a little on tickover and the Porsche tech manual recommended fix was to clean the throttle body, which was all gummed up. I had Sports & Classic do the job (as part of checking the car over for sale) but I don't think it was all that difficult, although as Rockster says probably best done with care if it's not something of which you have experience.

[Hilux2400]

My last experiment with TB cleaning was on the carb of a very modern Honda lawnmower. These machines have no form of adjustment and run very lean. It is quite a sophisticated OHC engine. The mower, just 12 months old, was hunting at idle and at high speed under no load conditions. I solved the problem by spraying carb cleaner into the open butterfly with the engine running at full throttle. I did it about 4 times. It solved the problem.

Hilux

[EvoSlayer]

Last time I had my turbo in bits I gave everything a clean before replacing, including throttle body. Can't remember exactly what I used but as above contact cleaner or IPA would do.



Btw, Car still works fine

[Hilux2400]

That's pretty clean - looks new. Does that TB have a stepper motor on the side to control the butterfly?

[Martian O]

EvoSlayer said:

.....contact cleaner or IPA would do......

You don't want to waste good beer on cleaning your car!

[EvoSlayer]

Hilux2400 said:

That's pretty clean - looks new. Does that TB have a stepper motor on the side to control the butterfly?

Yes mate, it's the e-gas system, basically the throttle valve is opened by a motor which receives signals from ecu depending how far you press throttle. Throttle valve can still be moved by hand though.

Edited by EvoSlayer on Friday 14th December 18:27

[EvoSlayer]

Martian O said:

You don't want to waste good beer on cleaning your car!

It's cheaper than some of that fancy polish

[steve singh]

Hilux2400 said:

My last experiment with TB cleaning was on the carb of a very modern Honda lawnmower. These machines have no form of adjustment and run very lean. It is quite a sophisticated OHC engine. The mower, just 12 months old, was hunting at idle and at high speed under no load conditions. I solved the problem by spraying carb cleaner into the open butterfly with the engine running at full throttle. I did it about 4 times. It solved the problem.

Hilux

Probably best not to extrapolate work on a lawnmower to an engine where mistakes cost a lot more!

[Hilux2400]

Not so sure - the lawnmower cost £1200.

[Stevorocket]

"If it aint broke don't fix it."

I have had a 3.2 Carrera, 993 Targa and my current GT3RS - non of which have required cleaning during the 10 - 15k miles done in each per year over 4+ years ownership of each car.


so thats 3 x 4 x 15 = 180,000 miles without a hiccup.

I bet cleaning it isn't in the service manual either.

Edited by Stevorocket on Sunday 16th December 13:39

Edited by Stevorocket on Sunday 16th December 13:40

[Hilux2400]

I decided the clean the throttle body and on first inspection it looked OK. I did not open it by hand but turned on ignition and used pedal. Inside, behind the butterfly, and on the edges of the butterfly, there was a lot of muck. So I cleaned it up with carb cleaner.

I decided to do this as I had a problem with a VW some years back when after 90K miles of no cleaning the build up of muck had gone beyond the ECU's capability to manage idling speed. Despite cleaning, it did not recover.

I took advice on cleaning the throttle body from the Renntech site where there are a few good tutorials.

H