Article: Cleaning the Throttle Body

[timsrv]

We have discussed this a few times here, and again just a few days ago. This is a good thread for this discussion though (better than the other places it's been posted). Here's a few quotes from the last time it was discussed. Tim

Clear codes, drive it some more & recheck codes. If #51 comes back you most likely have a bad TPS. These are a common failed part on the van. If it's got more than 150k miles on it or if you don't know how old it is, then I'd just replace. Testing these per the manual is a somewhat involved process. I'm not saying he didn't do it right, but it's hard to imagine your average mechanic going to this much effort (it would be hard to do with the throttle body installed). Even if he did do everything right, when these get old they become intermittent. Bottom line? For a $35 part it's not worth messing with. I replace these like some people replace spark plugs. If I'm doing a tune-up and I see code 51, I won't even mess around with trying to clean or whatever. Just replace it and be done with it . Tim

PS: If it's newer and you know it's got less than 100k miles on it, then perhaps it's worth a little more consideration. But for me, my time is more valuable than messing with a questionable TPS. Tim

thanks, tim. i'm going to do it. i see that the part on 1sttoyotaparts.com is almost $70 and on rockauto.com is $32 (beck/arnley). that's a big difference. is it worth spending the extra bux for the toyota part?

I used to think so, but a while back www.rockauto.com had one of their "closeout" sales and I picked-up "the last 6" of the Beck Arnley #1580503 units for $18 each. Of course they weren't the last 6 (but were certainly the last 6 I've seen at that price). I took the cover off the 1st one and inspected before installation (thought it looked good). These Beck Arnley units are made in Italy (not sure if that matters) & appear to be of high quality. That was about 4 years ago and I've since used them all (and then some) on different vans I've worked on. I just ordered another one last week (sucked having to pay ~$35 for it), but it's a lot better than $70 something from Toyota. Unless these aftermarket ones start dropping dead, I'm not buying any more from Toyota. Tim

BTW, the last one of these I got was off of Amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1. It's listed for a few cents more, but if you have Prime shipping is free and it will show up in just a couple days (so it's a better deal overall). If you click on the link, ignore the picture in the Amazon listing (it's wrong). The part you get will be the correct one. Tim