Throttle Body Cleaning

orange150

orange150

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
Fairfax City, VA
FIL dropped his 2013 F150 EcoBoost with 98,000 miles on it off at the local Ford dealership for some recall work and to get some other stuff checked out. They've recommended cleaning his throttle body at $170. My initial response was "No", but after some looking into it, it looks like it may be worth it.

Is this like what we did years ago where you buy the "throttle body cleaner" and just spray it down while the engine runs or is there more to it these days?
I've read some stuff where the cleaning can wreck your turbo, which you're SOL if anyone but a Ford Tech does the work.
 
At work if there's a problem like stalling or low idle, we spray carb cleaner in the TB, then scrub it with a toothbrush, then re spray to get the residue out. You'll have to hold it wot on startup cause it'll be flooded with carb cleaner.

Ford has a machine I'm sure where the chemical is put in a pot and it sprays the chemical into the airstream with the engine running, that's what we had when I was at Ford in the early 2000s

If there's no symptoms we don't mess with them because sometimes it needs an idle relearn or it'll throw code or idle fast after.

The dealer is recommending it along with all the other usual flushes because they can do then quick but the tech gets paid 1hr labor and the writer gets commission too for each flush usually. When i was at Ford a 30k service had 5 flushes, paid 6 hrs and I could do them all in 2 or so not rushing. Most like coolant, trans, tb and fuel injector I could run at the same time, so 30 minutes hookup and disconnect time and let the car run for 30 while I took a break.
 
Just an echo of the Jody and Tim. It's what I've always done, which reminds me I should probably clean mine in the truck.
 
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