Well, today I was in Auto Zone and picked up a can of STP Throttle Body Cleaner. Wow! Immediately once I cranked it up I noticed I had a smoother idle. Also, before when revving it up in neutral, it would want to skip, miss, and carry on. It sounded terrible. It still does it a little bit, but it's no where near as bad. I think if I took the TB all the way off and went to town, I could get it to stop completely. My question is, what do I need to be careful with when taking it off and cleaning it? Do I need to take the TPS off, or is it fine if I'm using TB Cleaner? I don't want to invest in a new one, so any help is appreciated before I dive into this!!

 

Anyone?

 

I've heard that the cleaner can damage the TPS if it gets in there. I wouldn't spray too much. Removing the throttle body is easy to do, just unplug a few vacuum hoses, 1 electrical connector, 2 coolant hoses and remove 4 bolts. When I did mine I didn't drain the rad as is suggested, I just removed the coolant hoses and quickly plugged them with a bolt. I probably spilt a couple of ounces only. Then remove the TPS and clean away. It's also a good time to make sure the TPS is adjusted properly. I found this site useful for that
http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/TPS/index.shtml

One other thing if you remove the throttle body the dealers near me didn't stock the gasket between it and the intake plenum, I had to order it which meant no truck for 2 days. You may want to get one ahead of time.

 

If I remove the TPS, is it possible to reinstall it incorrectly? I know the mounting holes are oval-shaped for adjustment, should I just mark where it is and not worry about it? Thanks!

 

Assuming it's correct now, if you put it back in exactly the same place it should be OK.

 

seeing how this is being talked about, i have a question.

i read the link on the cleaning and replacement on 4crawler. my question is this...a bad tps will cause a stutter or hessitation on acceleration, correct? and will it just happen, or will there be signs first? reason i am asking is this:

i have a 98 4runner, 4cyl, 5spd. with 131k on it. the truck has always run fine, but it just started to skip on up shifts, surge when at highway speeds, and have a lack of power on down shifts. i went from 22-23 mpg to about 20-21 mpg. i orderred a clutch, but now i am beginning to qustion if it could be this based on the surge and stutter. any idea how much the part is, and if anyone thinks this i worth looking into before replacing the clutch.? i have not cleaned the throttle body, as this is on my things to do list. could it also just be the throttle body needing a good cleaning? thanks in advance.

 

it definitely will not hurt to clean the throttle body

 

You're idle will act wierd if you have a bad TPS. You'll be at a stop light and you're rpms will idle up and down erratically if your TPS is bad. But, test it first before replacing it, it's a good $230 part when it was replaced in my old '90 4Runner.