Throttle body cleaning
 

I was at the deal/stealership today for routine servicing and they asked me if I wanted to clean the throttle body. Mine is a low mileage vehicle and I'm cheap, so I said no.

Any hybrid owners here done a DIY throttle body cleaning? I was thinking of buying a can of cleaner, disconnecting the intake hose, spraying the inside and wiping off any gunk.

Do I need to disconnect the 12V battery in the back? Any precautions on sensors or moving assemblies in the throttle body?

Dealer should rename that product a wallet cleaning. You don't see in in the Lexus Manual.

I would not bother DIY or dealer provided. Unnecessary.

You don't need any type of throttle cleaner if you are using a Top Tier gasoline.

Guessing that's not a thing in China. :)

Isn't the throttle body upstream of the injectors? Maybe the hybrid's Atkinson cycle running lets the air-fuel mix leak past the intake valves and get stuck on the throttle body.

Geez, another scheme/item recommended by the dealer that's not necessary. I didn't know this but do now... Great forum...

The air box/intake is connected to Throttle body, so yes its upstream. I typically deny all of these add-ons at service, as they are not recommended by Lexus or has no value at low miles. But it does work on car with 150,000 + miles; I did it on our CR-V as it was vibrating at idle, fixed it by cleaning the throttle body by myself for <$10.

I only use Top Tier gas but every 5,000 miles or so I add a bottle of Techron for good measure. Costs something like $5 or so from Costco - essentially the same as the price differential between one tankful of Premium vs. Regular gas. However, I would be a little hesitant to start doing this to an engine with a lot of miles. Years ago I used Techron on an older RX350 and immediately after, one of the the fuel injectors went bad. Seemed too coincidental. So I concluded best to begin using earlier on.