Throttle body cleaning and location??

Hi guys,

 

Can anyone tell me where I can find the throttle body? I need to clean it according to the dealership. Thx!

Why are they telling you you need to clean it?

If you can't find it, you should probably have the dealer do it.

it probably won't fix the problem

they said the throttle body is dirty from gunk and buildup but i've done all the required maintenance according to the manual.... oil changes every 3500 miles w/ castrol synthetic blend, minor services every 15k miles, major services every 30k miles, wash every couple of weeks and wax every few months, new tires every 40-50k miles depending on treadwear, etc. i mean i'm REALLY OCD when it comes to car care cuz i want it to last! i just heard that some things are unnecessary so i want to verify first through subaru lovers like you guys ^_^!

let's assume that the dealer changes the air intake filter and cabin air filter when scheduled... if they do that, i shouldn't need the throttle body cleaning right?

Throttle body cleaning solved my rough idle in all my cars (it will not solve it if a sensor is damaged, but I am talking usage carbon build up only).

What they told me long time ago that if butterfly valve is dirty, it allows false air to go by, and screws up the idle. Worked for me for many years, I needed to do it roughly every 40k km, (25k miles), then I saw idle improvement.

All I was doing was removing the air intake hose, rotating butterfly and cleaned it with paper towel wrapped on the stick and dipped in kerosene. When you saw paper towel black, you were doing a good job, just don’t let the valve close so that a piece of the towel is cut off and goes further in.

So now a question:

Is 09 Leggy butterfly rotated by a stepper motor or a spring, how do I manually rotate it without screwing up electrical/electronics? Come summer, I would like to clean mine. This is the first car with no mechanical linkage to the intake air valve for me.

^not sure about the n/a car, but in the lgt it certainly seems like a motor; with the car off, you can move it gently/carefully via finger without ill effect...but speaking for the lgt it would likely be a waste of finger energy.

 

i've had several ganders in there over the years doing this or that, and i have never seen one iota of accumulation/debris/grime/particulate/blowby/etc. deposited in the actual t/b section of this car in over 100k miles.

the n/a car may very well be a different story.

 

but naturally from my experience, dealers who are swift to blindly invoke 'dirty throttle body' (and the subsequent 2-300$ 'service') as probable cause/remedy for what-ails-the-lgt sort of make me want to puke.

this is obviously an attempt by the dealership to sell you not needed work. if the car is running fine, you dont need it. leave your TB alone.

they said the throttle body is dirty from gunk and buildup

 

they would have had to take the intercooler off to know that. They wouldn't take the intercooler off unless they had reason to. So unless you had a specific problem with the car that they were diagnosing and you haven't told us about, your throttle body is fine. Don't touch it.

the car is running fine! however, i notice that there isn't as much power as before. i think the dealer is just blowing smoke.

you are probably just used to your car. it happens.

Cleaning throttle bodies depends a lot on the vehicle too, I've seen some cars with 150k that had never been cleaned and were spotless, others that need it every 15k or so. A lot depends on the PCV system setup

if your throttle body is really that dirty, then imagine what the intercooler and all it's small passages looks like. And you can't even use soap to clean it.

if your throttle body is really that dirty, then imagine what the intercooler and all it's small passages looks like. And you can't even use soap to clean it.

 

NO SOAP ON INTERCOOLER, FOOL!!!:jedi:

how does one know if ur idling is rough? vibrations?

how does one know if ur idling is rough? vibrations?

 

depends; some idle vibrations indicate you are driving a subaru .

 

the way i gauge it: if the vibrations are felt in your arteries and have almost a 'sonic value,' all's well -- if felt in your muscles, and rather 'shaky' you might want to check down the usual culprit list.