Hey there,

I've had my 2007 tC for about a year now and I finally decided to start sinking some money into it. It's currently not drivable because the front wheel bearings are shot so I'm using this downtime to work on the engine. I swapped out the horrid stock air intake, or lack thereof, that came with the car
(It's an R-Title and was smashed in on the driver's side.) The guy who fixed it did a decent job restoring it but he left a few things unfinished. The airbox and some other components must not have made his to-do list... Mind you, I'm somewhat a noob when it comes to cars. I know more than the
average person but I'm far from a professional.

Anyways, this is what I found when I pulled off the stock assembly:

https://imgur.com/gallery/JNBuFrR

I wasn't surprised because of the way the car
idles and acts. I know cleaning it would mean taking it all off, and carefully cleaning it. I hear about people cleaning them with them still on the car and it blew my mind because all that gunk would basically go right into the engine. Especially because these are more
vertical instead of horizontal. If I have to take it off to clean it anyway, why not just pay the $75-100 for a new one and slap it on there? Or is the cleaning process really that easy? If I replace it, is there anything else besides a new gasket that I need to change too?

Since I'm not driving it for a couple more days I just put it all together as is and decided I'd ask around before I proceed.

___

 

Doesn't look bad tbh. Standard for some decent mileage. Get some carb cleaner and a rag and go to town.

Weird idling is probably more likely a cause of the air intake situation than TB.

 

Yeah, it just ticked past 170k miles. And I believe the engine is mostly all original. With the gen 1 tCs aren’t they Drive by Wire or something so your not supposed to manually open the valve? I would be terrified to clean it because I wouldn’t want that dirt finding it’s way, the whole way, into the engine.

 

You should be fine. I've never had an issue from cleaning the tb on any vehicle, just do your best to clean the outside gunk off it first or remove it completely and clean on a workbench. Be aware that most tb's have small coolant lines passing thru to avoid icing up in the winter (okay to bypass on warm climates to help reduce IAT's) but if you remove it be ready to cap off those lines (or be ready to replace if they crack due to age).

 

Might want to check the PCV valve and your air filter. The oily dirt on your throttle body comes from crankcase ventilation (oil vapor) and dirt from the air intake. If the PCV valve is stuck open, it'll spit liquid oil and your throttle body will get dirty sooner. A dirty air filter will also compound problems sooner.

While you're cleaning the throttle body, consider cleaning the MAF sensor as well. You'll probably gain a few MPGs.

 

Here's a personal example of a dirty one lol. Picked up a 2014 F150 Ecoboost with 100K miles on it and here's what it greeted me with. Came from freezing cold Canada and idled alot.

 

Wow Brian, you did amazing job on that TB. Good work!