I'm sure this is a stupid question, but here goes-when you clean out your throttle body, do you take the whole thing off and clean it or do you just unhook the intake tube and clean the first part? Any replies are greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

Just unhook the intake tube. Use carb cleaner and a soft tooth brush. By ny means use anything that might scratch the t/b, you'll have air bypass and never make the car idle right and I know you don't want to ruin a $500 throttle chamber.
good luck,
Jared

 

One more dumb question, If someone might be so kind as to answer. Should I also clean past the brass plate, or just tip the plate up to get the black gunk around the edge? Thanks again.

 

If you are somewhat mechanically inclined, the best thing to do is to remove the enire intake manifold and clean it too. The crap you see on TB is just the tip of the iceberg compared to what you'll find inside the manifold. I went through at least 3 cans of carb cleaner with my manifold before I got it nice and clean. The downside to this of course is that you will need new TB and Manifold gaskets (cheap, only a few $$ from dealer) and it's sort of a PITA depending on which engine you have but that's the only way to clean TB/Manifold properly, IMO.

Also, you will not force your engine to try to burn all that crap you just cleaned off and risking it being deposited in the manifold runners/head intake ports or worse, intake valves.

 

Take the whole thing out..you will loose a little bit of coolant but that's not a big deal. Removal will take you like 5 mins max. It is only held by some small 10 mm bolts...remove the throttle cable is also a breeze...

By removing it, you will be able to clean it completely...you will never be able to get to certain parts the other way. Also, remember to remove the idling screws and remove it and parts as well as the fast thermo valve...

 

Thanks a lot for all the replies. I will be taking all of your advice and just take at least the throttle body off and clean it, and if I'm ambitious, the intake manifold as well. Once again, thanks.