wtf? 15000 mile checkup, throttle body cleaning?

[SuperSpud]

ok, so my dealer calls my house and talkes to my dad about taking my car in for the 15000 mile check up. I tell him I really dont want/need to do that. my dad tells me that the dealer was saying that I REALLY need to bring my car in, b/c they have to do some maintenance to my throttle body. but it ISNT covered by warrenty. its like $80.

first off, even if they had to do something like that, WHY would it not be under warrenty?

second, how do they even know my car needs to be worked on?

and third, what the s*** are they talking about? anyone even heard of this?

 

[DiscreetSpeed]

tell them no thanks...you arent paying for it...if its not covered by warranty then it shouldnt be a issue.

 

[AutoBox]

i know my moms throttle body on her accord was cleaned because the gas pedal was stickin....of course it was covered under warrenty cus i bitched that its a safety issue if u dont have this trouble, they just tryin to screw u

 

[Turbo Matty P]

dude....I used to work at a dealership. Please take my advice.

DO NOT EVER TAKE YOUR CAR TO THE DEALERSHIP TO BE WORKED ON. When they call you tell them to take your name out of there calling list that you do not want/need their services. (even for warranty work). I have seen dealers create problems with cars to get people to come back. I've seen service writers lie and manipulate technicians findings to make sales.

Understand this: A service writer is a salesman for work. He's telling you s*** to make you feel obligated to buy services from him. DO NOT DO THIS. If by some fluke you throttlebody needed servicing you can simply go to autozone and buy a spray can of "carb cleaner". It has directions on it, but it is basically, just spray and wipe. This will almost never affect performance unless you have serious problems with your car. It's good maintaince to just clean it out every so often, but is not worth $80. It's not even worth $5.

 

[SpeedMcheen]

The stealer is hounding you for something that you should eventually have done but not neccesarily right away. All fuel injected cars should have their throttlebodies cleaned out every-so-often. It should be considered required periodic maintenance. It'll enhance long-term reliability, gas-milage and make a noticable performance difference if it was really dirty. I'd do it around evey 25,000 - 35,000 miles depending on how heavy your "accelerator foot" is.

$80 is an average price for a stealer to do it. Dirt in your throttlebody is classified as normal wear and tear so it will never be covered by any warranty (unless your a really good negotiator), but perhaps another trusty mechanic can do it for less.

 

[Go Mifune]

Thats Lame.

Here are DIY instructions for cleaning the throttle body.

http://autorepair.about.com/cs/doityourself/a/aa080302a.htm

 

[mspdfreak]

Oh, you should see the little maintenance book my dealer gave me. It has a different page for every mileage interval service check and lists "what they're going to do for me". The first one is about $80 at 5k miles, then it progressively gets bigger until you hit 60k. Then it's $799.95! (rofl2)
The only thing of any value that they do is change the timing belt.
The sad part is, you know there are dumbasses out there who are marking the days until their next regular service call!!

 

[hritchie]

clean the egr port it will get stopped up

 

[speedhawaii]

strange

 

[BlkZoomZoom]

I don't know about you guys but I'm pretty religous about doing maintenance.....in fact I did a top engine clean/ fuel injection cleaning on the MSP today. That would be the third I've done in the 8k miles I've driven......

 

[Riles]

Why do you clean your engine so often? Is it actually dirty? If your air filter is doing it's job, and the turbo isn't leaking oil, your entire intake track should be spotless. I put 100,000 miles on my firebird, and when i pulled the throttle body to do some other stuff, it looked as fresh as the day it was made.

If you need to clean your throttle body/intake manifold that often, you should probably find out what is causing it to be dirty.

 

[BlkZoomZoom]

riles- LOL... Try looking at a modern day pcv system. Then tell me how spotless the intake manifold is.

On top of that have you ever noticed how rich a MSP runs at idle? You know how carbon builds up when a overly rich mixture is used?

On top of that....MSP's are turboed right? All turbos spit some amount of oil, no matter the condition, thats the way they are designed.

Just some food for thought.......

 

[MoJoeTCM]

i have cleaned my bodies out......hehe....but yes, it feels like you have nos for the first 3 mins of driving...

 

[MSPinVA]

well, degreaser in the intake tract works WONDERS for horsepower......