by nickabbey » Tue Jan 16, 2007 3:34 pm
Hi, I saw someone else posted a similar quetion in this tread, but I didn't see a response.
The short version:
I want to know if the same procedure will work on my 4 banger gen 2. It's a 2004 with 44k miles on it. The dealer wants $1500.00 to replace the throttle body and the pedal sensor. I think cleaning will help and save me an a$$load of money.
The long version (I write way too much sometimes, so you can skip this part unless you're curious):
I already tried this but failed and am looking for some insight as to why. I'm mechanically inclined, but not a mechanic.
My whole problem is that the check engine light came on and a day later I started seeing this new behavior: I turned the key any my idle was normal at 900. Then it immediately dropped at a steady rate until the engine died. This happened in a span of about 10 or 15 seconds. If I gun the engine after turning the key and never let it get under 1000 rpm, the pedal responds and I can drive starting this way in neutral and dropping it in to drive while around 1-1100 rpm. If I ever let it get below 1k, the pedal stops responding and the idle dies steadily. This is still happening. The dealer put it on the diagnostic machine and told me that the throttle body needs to be replaced.
I thought I'd be able to open the valve and clean out the whole throttle body, but the valve wouldn't give easily and I didn't want to force it. I have the service manuals, so I learned that it's controlled electronically. I spent a half hour looking for a manual control, but only found the oval shaped wire harness on the right side of the TB and couldn't find anything about it in the manual. I gave up thinking that either it's not there or I just wasn't going to find it today. I cleaned what I could get at inside the the throttle body (above the valve) which looked pretty clean and shiny all around. I picked up nasty black gunk when wiping my rag around the edge of the valve as deep as I could get.
I think it helped and I want to clean it better. I think it helped because now it's not idling down and dying, but the pedal still doesn't respond if I let it go below 1K RPM. Even if I have to pay for the pedal sensor to be replaced by a pro, I'd rather not blow close to a grand on the TB replacement.