Took my 09 Ram in for service the other day and the dealer wanted to clean the throttle body for 149 bucks? Just wondering if this service is really needed and how come it is so expensive.

I put a can of seafoam in my gas tank every 5000 miles and I have 117xxx on my truck and have had zero fuel problems with this truck. Any info is appreciated.

Thanks

 

go to the auto parts store and buy a can of throttle body cleaner spray and do it yourself for less than $10. Leave the engine off, undo the intake at the throttle body and you can see the throttle body & butterfly. Spray the butterfly valve and wipe clean. Next, using your fingers, open the valve and spray as much as you can of the back side of the butterfly and body. Wipe with a rag as deep as you can reach. The important part is where the butterfly meets the body itself. This is where the idle gets affected. Clean really well and you're done. Now for the fun part, depending on how much you sprayed in there. Connect it all up and turn it on, rough idle for a little and then it cleans up.

 

I did this on my last Ram. Took me about 20 minutes and was fun. 4 screws and a gasket. I didn't use throttle body cleaner though, I used non-chlorinated brake cleaner. No matter what you use, make sure not to get anything on the sensors if there are any in there.

 

I would not pay to get this "service" performed.

I'm also not planning on doing anything like this to my fuel injected truck, that runs just fine, at 126k miles.

Back in the day men and boys would use carburetor cleaner, ATF fluid, etc. to physical clean crap from the carb & intake manifold. Back then you would also take your vehicles out on a long stretch of road and "blow the carbon out". Lol

A very large percentage of those meticulously maintained machines went by the way of the crusher anyway.

Buy yourself a steakhouse meal instead.

 

I always cleaned mine about every 30,000 miles. The problem is the throttle body plate gets all gummed up. Some genius engineers decided to vent the crankcase just in front of the throttle body and the egr right behind it.

Do it yourself, $8 and 20 minutes will take care of it...

 

There is actually a TSB for this in the third gens. Dirty TB was causing engine codes. The TSB said use brake cleaner only as the TB cleaner was to harsh. And it rarely caused any issue below 50k miles, only higher mileage trucks.

 

You don't even have to take it off. Just make sure the throttle plate and the bore are free from buildup that might interfere with the plate movement. There is nothing else you need to do.






There IS a fuel system service where they can flush your injectors and plenum with a cleaner ran through the fuel rail and the fuel pump disabled. If you tend to have carbon buildup it's a good service to do every 50K or so.


Use the MOPAR kit.....NOT the BG kit.