sr20boston

I found that after cleaning my throttle body, my idle speed was no longer adjusted properly. I'm not sure why that was, but you might want to check yours after doing this.

You will first need to remove the large hose going from the intake to the throttle body. (The Intake is where your air filter is.) There will be a large clamp at each end of this hose, and another near the intake, these can be loosened with a phillips screwdriver. There is a vaccum hose near the throttle body that must be removed from the hose, and there are also two other hoses that need removing from this one. Use a pliers to spread the clamps, and work the hoses loose. Once the two end clamps are loosened and the other three hoses removed, remove this hose assembly.

You now have access to the throttle body. Take a broom stick and use this to push the gas pedal to the floor, keeping the throttle wide open. If you can find Throttle Body Cleaner, use this, but Carb cleaner can work too. Just hold onto that little straw to keep it from flying into your engine! Since the cans normally don't spray well upside down, I managed to lower the can down between some hoses and get it at a good spraying angle. Soak the throttle body well, then use an old toothbrush to brush against any metal surface you can reach. You'll find the brush will quickly turn black. Spray in more cleaner, and keep brushing. This may take a while. Get as far in with the brush as you can, but again, be very careful not to let the brush drop into the engine!

When you're done, fire up the engine, and spray a final burst of cleaner into the throttle body. Ignore the white smoke pouring out of your tailpipe, it will go away once you have the hose reattached to the throttle body. Shut down the engine, reinstall the hose, and you're all set!

This procedure should probably be done once a year as part of your spring tune-up ritual.

Source: Jim Wright