Throttle Body is killing me

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TheFuzz

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Sorry to dig this one back up from last month, but I like doing a maintenance baseline on any used vehicle I buy so I know that all of the fluids are fresh and everything is up to date as far as maintenance goes. One of the items on my usual list is cleaning the throttle body. Since I just upgraded to a NNBS truck, is the throttle body something that we can't clean ourselves on the newer 5.3's? Does manually moving the plate to clean it screw up the calibration?
 

JennaBear

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Yes, you can clean it, but if you touch the plate, or it was really dirty, your vehicle may need an idle relearn.
 

TheFuzz

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Good to know, thanks Jenna. I guess investing in a decent scan tool might be worth it.
 

08grey

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I have cleaned my throttle body and moved the plate with no issues. Why should we not touch the plate?
 

TheFuzz

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If I'm understanding it correctly, since the newer 5.3's have an electronically controlled throttle, the TPS can get wonky if you're moving the throttle plate around without the engine running (and it ends up in a different place than it was before you started).
 

JennaBear

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If I'm understanding it correctly, since the newer 5.3's have an electronically controlled throttle, the TPS can get wonky if you're moving the throttle plate around without the engine running (and it ends up in a different place than it was before you started).

Correct.
 

scottg918514

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Sorry to dig this one back up from last month, but I like doing a maintenance baseline on any used vehicle I buy so I know that all of the fluids are fresh and everything is up to date as far as maintenance goes. One of the items on my usual list is cleaning the throttle body. Since I just upgraded to a NNBS truck, is the throttle body something that we can't clean ourselves on the newer 5.3's? Does manually moving the plate to clean it screw up the calibration?

Tip: to be safe with electronic throttle bodies, have a second person out key in ingnitiion and turn to accessory 2, or what ever it is called, before start, and have then slowly push gas pedal. This will move the butterfly valve up, so you can clean properly.
 

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