I cleaned my throttle body about 2 weeks ago and since then I have been getting a low idle issue. I need some help in figuring out what it can be before I start probing. The only thing that comes to mind for me would be the throttle body cable. Can anyone give me some advise in getting this issue resolved. This only happens when I am in gear by the way with the ac off and it doesnt always happen its very often soemtimes it lower sometimes right below the 3rd line on the tach but I notice the car shake when it drops lower.

 

When you cleaned your throttle body, did you push the butterfly with your fingers to open it fully or did you use the gas pedal to open it fully? We have an electronic throttle control (ETC) in our cars. When you clean the throttle body, you must put the key in the ignition and turn to the second position (all lights on dash lit up) then push the pedal to the floor to open throttlebody. Not wise to use the finger method to force it open.

 

What product did you clean your throttle body with? Some spray carborator cleaner can damage the 02 sensors. You need to make sure to get the variety that is labeled 'safe for 02 sensors'. Not all brands are; read the label of the carb cleaner or throttle body cleaner you bought.

 

Did you make sure all your vacuum hoses are not leaking? I know one of my in was on the verge of cracking at the tip so that had to be replaced.
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1999 Lexus GS400
-Stock

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ok what happens if I used my fingers?? What do I now? My hoses are fine I only have 50000 miles on the car.

 

Hmm... I had no idea that would matter. I'm glad I read this before I did mine.

FYI: For the guy that did his- have you reset your ECU by disconnecting the battery for 10 minutes?

Perhaps the vehicle was accustomed to the way the butterfly was letting in air and when you cleaned out the build up, the amount of air passing through returned to normal but the computer just needs to reset itself?

 

Using your fingers to push open the throttle body has no ill-effect on your car. You will find on the cable driven GS's (98-2000), that the cable does NOT open the butterfly plate anyway. On the drivers side of the throttle plate on the outside is an electric motor that responds to inputs from the TPS, which is on the cable side of the throttle body.

If your engine idles smoothly at the 600 rpm mark on the tach (AC off, headlights off), it will feel slow when the car is in gear. I had a broken motor mount on the driver's side, and once I changed it, the smoothness returned. Granted, it is not as smooth as it will be with the AC and/or headlights on, but you shouldn't have a rough vibration.

Clean your throttle plate with any commercial carb cleaner, reassemble and drive. Don't start the engine with the air cleaner and mass air sensors removed or you will get a check engine fault light.

There is a little black plastic plug on the top of the throttle body that I use to clean the entire air intake. I use it on the engine while running, and use the long plastic hose that comes with the bottle to spray in there. On the 1UZFE, the small plastic cover is under the big engine cover, which you have to remove before gaining access to the little plastic plug. Remove the plug, and spray the bottle of cleaner through the small metal tube, being careful not to drown out the engine with cleaner. Go slow, or use the throttle to raise the engine speed.

Good luck!

 

I did reset it because I threw a check engine after i did the cleaning.

 

The same thing actually happened to me about 1 month ago all i did was disconnected the negative battery cable for 30min and it cleared the lights cel,vsc,vsc off i beleive is what came up on mine, then go to auto zone. have them read the codes that may be still stored, then get them to erase it. then u should be fine, the reason i say do it this way is because what u did by cleaning the throttle body. Is what i did the same way, and i had the lights came up. uncase ur wondering y i said go to autozone to check the codes because just because u had the cel light came up and u reset the ecu doesnt mean that the codes still wont read on the obd2 scanner. which might bring the lights back up again. Good luck.

 

does anyone know if the dealership does throttle body / injector cleaning?

 

Kharizma - I doubt it. I think it falls under "cleaning" as opposed to "repairs". Why pay to have it done, there are a half dozen write ups on how to do it on here. Just make sure you get the O2 safe cleaner and go to town with a towel and maybe some cotton swabs.