Throttle Body Service

[raden]

Hello all,

I went for a routine oil change at the dealer's today. They offered me the throttle body service, which was $129. I declined the service because I didn't budget for it this month. I talked with a buddy who has worked at a different Mazda dealer as a service consultant for a number of years. He mentioned that the service is BS and all they do is shoot an aerosol based cleaner in the TB.

Has anyone done this themselves? Is it necessary or just BS?

Thanks in advance!

 

[phoned]

Sounds like BS. It's probably something like sea foam, etc. They may claim it helps clean the intake manifold, but most people have found sea foam doesn't actually do that very well.

 

[ironbrewer]

I'm not saying that the service isn't BS, but I used sea foam on a motorcycle with a gummed up carb. It did a great job at cleaning it up and getting it running great again.

 

[raden]

I'm not saying that the service isn't BS, but I used sea foam on a motorcycle with a gummed up carb. It did a great job at cleaning it up and getting it running great again.

I'm thinking I can just do that myself, I'm not sure it's worth the $129 that they want to charge for it.

 

[CX5Dude]

The service schedule does not have any set time for this service. It is only as required when and if it gets dirty. This happens only after ~60,000 miles of driving and the air filter was dirty and or driven in high smog areas that causes a greasy condition in the TB. The danger of using spray in chemicals while operating the motor is that you can cause hydro-lock to the motor if you spray too much at one time. The TB service should physically disassemble the TB and clean it manually and reinstall with new gasket. I had an older 4-runner with 120,000 km where the TB would stick on cold start up each morning until I had it cleaned. The difference was night and day. In those days, the gas pedal was attached via a cable and I could feel the resistance on the first push of the pedal. Also, remember the Servicer Advisor is just that, if he /she actually knew something about mechanics, they would be working in the garage. Their job is to upsell to get more money into the shop.