Trottle Body/Injector cleaning necessary?

[Tedbird]

I went to the Toy. Dealer for an oil change and they showed me a little black ring of carbon at the Throttle Body Butterfly and sugested they clean the Injectors ,Throt. Bod. and put additive in the gas tank as the Throt. Bod. cost $1200 to replace if something went wrong and it will cost $100 to clean. Did i get ripped off? I never did that to my 04 Vibe with 130k miles.

Love my 08 V6 4wd Limited with 39k miles. Thanks in advance! Tedbird
My previous loves: 04 Pontiac Vibe (Toy. Matrix), 54 Chev Conv., XK 120 Jag Roadster, 66 Ford Mustang

[JuneBug]

They tried the same with me the other day when I brought it in for the oil change. They wanted to do throttle body service, fuel injector service, and tire balancing! I turned them down--told them that it was running fine with no error codes and great gas mileage. Afterwards, they told me they couldn't rotate the tires because they were too worn. I wonder if they would have still charged me for balancing???

[Shep426]

T'body cleaning is normal interval maintenance on just about any vehicle, some have a special " foul proof " coating but yes it should be done, but the TB will not be ruined if not done, that's BS. Todays fuel have injector cleaner added some more, some less, Chevron and Texaco have the most, using commercially available Chevron Techron.

[avs]

It's very easy to clean. Make sure you use a special cloth or a brush that will not remove the Teflon coating off the throttle body.

[RTexasF]

I read that throttle body cleaner should specifically be used as opposed to carb/injector cleaner. It seems that the carb cleaner solvents are strong and can possibly cause problems with sensors, etc. I've seen it more than once so I'll likely follow that advice when it's time to do so. Is it true? Don't know but it seems to make sense.

Also for those that say they use an injector cleaner or that it is in the fuel that does nothing for the throttle body.

[RTexasF]

Afterwards, they told me they couldn't rotate the tires because they were too worn.

Headed to the tire store soon?

[Dr. Dyno]

Gee, I've never used either a throttle body or an injector cleaner on ANY of my fuel injected cars. Why even take a chance on damaging anything when I bet no one could measure any improvement other than the TB looks cleaner.
And BTW, how does it get dirty in the first place?

Of course you can't see the injectors, so how do you know they need cleaning?

The whole thing sounds like a rip off to me. How much are deer whistles going for these days?

[Shep426]

A carboned up TB can prevent the throttle blades from seating properly, plus the build up can accumulate further into the TB where you cannot see it, this under worst case scenario can affect airflow.

[Dr. Dyno]

Originally Posted by Shep426

A carboned up TB ...

In a properly operating TB where can carbon come from since there is no fuel there and it can't come thru the air cleaner. Just asking.

I have seen fuel related buildup on carburetted cars and Harleys.

But I've put 400,000 miles on an EFI Honda, never cleaned the TB and never seen any carbon. Of course I do proper maintenance with the air filter, etc.

[bigbird1]

Originally Posted by Dr. Dyno

In a properly operating TB where can carbon come from since there is no fuel there and it can't come thru the air cleaner. Just asking.

Carbon can accumulate on the bottom of the throttle plate and inside the throttle body below the plate from blowby vapours emanating from the crankcase. The PCV system takes crankcase vapours and recirculates them back into the intake system for elimination. Otherwise the excessive crankcase pressures would cause blown seals and ring and valve sticking.