How-To: Clean Your Tundra Throttle Body

Every now and again it’s good to give the inner workings of you engine a good cleaning. Not only can it help with the idle speed of the engine and can help improve its performance, but it can also prolong the life of the throttle body motor. The following step by step guild will show you the easiest way to give your throttle body a clean and have it running as good as new.

Tools Required:

• Ratchet
• 10mm (7/16) socket
• A long, narrow plastic item to hold the butterfly valve on the throttle body open
• Throttle body cleaner
• Cloths and Q-Tips

1. Open the hood and remove the two 10mm nuts holding the engine covering. Once free take off the engine covering to expose the engine.
2. Using the same 10mm socket, remove the nut attaching the air conditioning line to the intake tube of the throttle body. This will make it much easier to move the intake tube free when needed.
3. Loosen the hose clamp that holds the intake tube to the throttle body with the 10mm socket. There’s no need to fully remove this just loosen it enough so that the tube can be removed.
4. Remove the intake tube from the throttle body. It is quite pliable so you may need to use a flat edged tool to remove it. Be careful not to damage it whilst removing it and make sure that no other hoses are loosened when you move it out of the way.
5. With the intake tube moved out of the way you can now see the butterfly valve on the throttle body. Any residue that has built up on this should be removed.
6. Use the throttle body cleaner on a cloth or Q-Tip to remove as much of the residue as you can from the front of the butterfly valve. Make sure to use the cleaner sparingly and wipe away any excess that is left.
7. Push on the top of the butterfly valve gently and use the long, narrow tool to hold it open (a screwdriver will do but plastic is better as it wont scratch anything). This will give you access to clean the underside of it and the surrounding casing. Make sure that no cleaner or any other foreign body gets into the intake. Again, make sure that any excess cleaner is wiped away.
8. Once you are satisfied with the cleaning then you can reassemble the engine. Remove the item used for holding open the butterfly valve and reattach the intake tube. Once on, tighten the jubilee clip (hose clamp).
9. Reattach the air conditioning line to the intake tube and reattach the engine covering.
10. Start the engine up and allow to idle for a couple of minutes. Some people have complained that their the engine sounds “rough” while idling for a couple of second. This should rectify itself once the system starts adjusting.