How to clean a throttle body and Idle air control valve (iac)

*** PLEASE READ ***
In this video demonstration, I show how to get to, remove, clean, and replace the throttle body and idle air control motor (aka IAC) on a 4.2l ford motor. This procedure is the same for any fuel injected vehicle.


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The vans require removal of alot more stuff just to access the throttle body.

A dirty IAC can cause a rough idle. A dirty throttle body can harm performance and cause rough engine operation.

When the throttle body or iac is removed a new gasket must be used to properly seal the connection to the intake.

GM idle air motors are generally mounted on the throttle body and can be cleaned without removal from the throttle body. This means one less gasket and a lesser chance of creating a vacuum leak.

The ford throttle body had a note on it that said it was not to be cleaned because the coating on the throttle blade might be damaged. Thats fine for a new car but that has to be disregarded when working on something that has some miles on it.

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* * * Definitions: * * *
MAF - Mass Air Flow sensor - Monitors the amount of air the engine is intaking.
IAT - Intake Air Temperature - Measures the temperature of the air the engine is intaking.
IAC - Idle air control - Controls the amount of air the engine is intaking while it is idling.
Throttle body - Responsible for regulating flow of air into the engine as you press the gas pedal.
TPS - Throttle position sensor - Tells the computer how far you are opening the blade in the throttle body so it can add more fuel to compensate the added air.

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Closed Caption:

yeah
ok guys today I'm going to show you how
to clean the throttle body in the idle
air control motor on a fuel-injected
vehicle
we're going to do this on a 4.2 liter
ford econoline van but the process is
going to be very similar on all makes
and models
first we're going to locate the intake
tract and on the van we going to take
all this stuff off to get to the
throttle body so we'll start by just
removing all these pieces they just kind
of pop apart on the Vance
so let's see there's the air cleaner
everything all coming off in one piece
and after we get that off will loosen
this clamp this big barrel thing here is
the mass air flow sensor and the mass
air flow sensor is telling the computer
how much air is actually being drawn
into the engine and it's a very
important part of engine function and
it's also very delicate
so you want to make sure that you take
care and not join this thing around too
much or touching anything that may be on
the inside of it on the GM cars and
stuff you'll see the little wires
hanging on the inside and they're very
delicate and you
so make sure you don't touch those they
do sell mass air flow sensor cleaners
but I've seen mass airflow sensors with
400,000 miles on him that I haven't had
anything wrong with them and I wouldn't
suggest cleaning them because you could
damage and they're very delicate like i
said so I'm just finishing up taking the
mounting bolts out on these four words
there's four bolts used to appear in the
two that I've already taken out so just
take those out the rest of the way and
then I'm going to grab it and gently
pull it apart and you're going to take
the connector off that's connected to
the mass air flow sensor
you're just depressed a little button it
will pull right out and set it off to
the side and I like to install bolts a
lot of times and you're working on stuff
if you just have bolts that are coming
out and you know you're not going to get
in the way you can just go ahead and
reinstall those so that when you put it
back together
you'll know how everything goes back
together
so the next thing now is just to take
this the rest of this intake apart
we're going to take it apart in one
piece first by just removing this one
clamp and this is the intake air
temperature sensor connector which will
remove here in a minute
so first we'll loosen this clamp then
once the clamp this list will just kind
of give it a little pull and wobble and
then will you press the button on the
connector and i use a flathead
screwdriver and slightly prion it now i
make those connectors all look easy
either
they're difficult at first and on all
different makes and models those things
will be different
don't forget about this little breather
tube on these four point two leaders but
the the connectors will be different you
have to be careful with those you don't
want to break them
so just study them out in like I said
they're all different but they're
they're pretty simple to take apart so i
set the wires all the way now we got to
get this throttle body cover off i'm
just going to use the socket and go
ahead and go in here and break that
thing loose
just pull it off and then I'm going to
also reinstall that bolt just that I
know where it goes whenever I have to
put it back together now this is the
throttle body and you can see here the
when you when i'm moving this is
actually what you would be doing if
you're giving the car gas you can see
the two cables to the right
those are actually the gas pedal and the
cruise control cable and those like I
said those poll on the throttle body and
open it up and the thing over here to
the left is the throttle position sensor
now that's reading where or how much gas
you're giving the engine so that the
computer can add more fuel
bison spring more fuel with the fuel
injectors now you see these things come
off really easy just kind of pull back
on it and wobble it will come out and
the other connector just pulls back and
you see how it was clipped in
and now this connector basically just
like all the rest of them
I want to use a flathead screwdriver and
I'll depress the button again with my
thumb and just gently pry on the back
side of it
now we'll locate the four mounting bolts
of the throttle body
this is pretty standard for all cars
although some cars like my of 95 Camaro
that has an lt1 motor in it and it has a
twin blade throttle body but it still
will mount basically the same way so
just take the four bolts out then once
you get those out
usually these throttle bodies are stuck
pretty good
so you have to just give a little tap
with a hammer and I'm tapping on a thick
piece of the aluminum's that i'm not
going to break anything because the
casting is pretty delicate and they're
very expensive and you can see the dirt
on the back side of it which is pretty
typical of a motor like this with a
hundred and fifty thousand miles on it
same with the intake passage here and
you can see this little hole that is the
idle air control motor passage that is
actually where the motors drawing air at
the idol to control the RPM of the aisle
you can see this the little bit of dirt
here which also is just a pretty common
occurrence
so here's the idle air control motor and
I'm just gonna break the two bolts loose
on it and if you're new with the
connectors I'd suggest to remove the
electrical connector first because
they're tricky to remove especially on
this thing because its way up under the
collar and it's hard to reach
if you're having trouble reaching this
stuff i'd suggest standing on something
and you can get a few more inches of
reach up in here
I'm making it look kind of easy but I'm
pretty used to working on these
so you see I just use the screwdriver
and just lightly pry it off while
pushing the button down to pop that
connector off and this is your idle air
control motor and you can see on the top
hole there the little panel that thing
actually will move back and forth and
that's going to allow more or less air
to flow into the engine at the Idol
which will keep it running
this is the throttle body cleaner the
gasket scraper in the toothbrush that
we're going to use to clean the throttle
body
I mean also remove the gasket from the
throttle body
so first you have to scrape the old
gasket material off of the throttle body
and this is tricky especially on the
forwards you want to choke up real close
on the gasket scraper and be very
careful not to college the aluminum too
much because you don't want to cause an
air leak here or the engine will not run
properly so you can see I'm just very
carefully
scraping a little piece at a time now
and I'm scraping away from my body so I
don't cut my fingers off for anything
and you want to do this
like I said until the whole surface is
clean and smooth and we'll have to do
the same thing on the intake surface -
that's on the engine to make sure that
both surfaces are clean before they're
mounted back together so you can see
here I'm just cleaning with the throttle
body cleaner and using the toothbrush to
get into all the little holes
the only two parts like i said earlier
that we're going to use our - gaskets
that are both only a couple bucks each
so this is a really cheap job and the
only other thing that you really have to
buy is the throttle body cleaner and the
reason that i'm not using gasoline is
because the throttle body cleaner is
safe for the sensors now you can see
here I was just pointing to the surface
they had to be clean you can see where
I've scraped it now it's pretty clean
we're just going to use the toothbrush
just to put some of the throttle body
cleaner on it to eat away any of the
remaining gasket material
so now that I've got it all spread out
and I just kind of DAB that real lightly
with a rag making sure I didn't leave
any rag debris behind that looks pretty
clean
then we're ready to reinstall and you
can see the gasket on the forward has a
triangle on one side and it's ovate on
the other
that's just kind of showing gasket
orientation so on the forward for some
reason even though the gasket looked
like it would go on both ways they want
to get on a certain way so just pay
attention to that whenever you're taking
them apart and now it's time to just
reassemble everything and i like to use
a anti-seize lubricant on all the bolts
so that if I ever have to take this
stuff apart in the future it will all
come right apart and rust and corrosion
won't be a problem
so to get this thing on this is the idle
air control motor
I got the gasket on there I'm holding it
with my fingers make sure that the gas
gets lined up that's very important to
make sure you've got the gasket oriented
properly and it's lined up and then I'm
just going to put one bolt in first and
screw that in a little bit and then i'll
go ahead and put the other bolt in and
as I'm tightening those bolts down
I'm going to keep tightening down and
even fashion so that one side doesn't
get pulled tighter than the other or I
may have a vacuum leak at this location
which will cause a rough idle and it'll
cause a rough running situation at any
RPM
so the motor will not run right at this
is not put on properly
then just tighten that down now this is
all pretty simple and this is stuff that
just a basic home do-it-yourselfer can
do
you're not really getting into anything
too crazy on the inside of the engine by
doing this stuff and this is all just
pretty much general maintenance on any
fuel injected vehicle
so for all the connectors
i'm going to use dielectric grease I
like to put this on all of my electrical
connections and i work on and this
ensures that no water or anything
we'll get into the connection and cause
the sensors to malfunction
so you see I just put a little bit on
there and just plugged it in and now i'm
going to make sure that my guidelines up
what you know that your gasket is proper
and it's going to line up
you can go ahead and slide that on and
then for all four bolts
i'm going to use the anti-seize
lubricant on all those
actually on the ford you can see there's
two of them that are nuts
the two that i've just installed
actually both nuts and then the other
two are bolts
here's one of the bolts
then here's the last one
and then to tighten them down I tighten
them in a crisscross fashion so that it
gets a good even tightening on the
gasket so that I prevent a vacuum leak
at this location like I said it's very
important that this is sealed very well
so I'm just crossing from one to the
other and just tightening a little more
and more each time when I put a little
bit of dielectric grease on my
connection and plug the throttle
position sensor back in and then it's
time to put the throttle cables on i
just use a little bit of oil but that--
across the spring just that the spring
always stays free moving and i'm also
going to put a little bit here on the
throttle cables
just because they do move in and out a
lot and it's not really something that
wears out but something that moves and
this keeps it moving freely now i just
put a little drop they're just so that
you'll see here in a second why this
simply just slides in and this other one
you'll see kinda clicks in so that's why
a little bit of oil on it just to help
it pop in and then all that's done and
we can just reinstall the cover I've
already taken the bolt back out that I
put in earlier then i'm going to slide
that in i have dielectric grease on your
anti-seize on it and I'm going to screw
that down
and then once that's down we can start
installing the intake so we'll put the
elbow on first just wobble that on make
sure we installed a breather and we will
take the this is the mass air flow
connector the mass air flow sensor
connector and the intake air temperature
sensor connector so i'm going to put
some dielectric grease on both of those
and what I've done that I can tighten up
my clamp
then once I'm happy with the tightness
of the clamp I'll go ahead and remove
the bolts that i put back in and i'm
going to anti seize those so that if i
take the mass air flow sensor off in the
future
I won't have a problem getting these
bolts out
there you can see I was just pointing to
show you that you don't want to touch
anything in there if you can help it
stay away from all that and just go
ahead and gently plug it in and the mass
air flow sensor amounts into these
little rubber washers see me at the
wobble around a little bit and you'll
get your bolts started so i'll start
those top two and we'll come down here
and to the bottom two
then we'll run those in
like I said they sell mass air flow
sensor cleaner but I've seen him with
400,000 miles on them and they were
problem free and I honestly be afraid to
spray anything on him because they are
expensive and they're pretty delicate so
if you think you might have a problem
with him it might be a problem with the
wiring or something like that may be
rubbing on something in this get this
clamp here is pretty important so you
want to make sure you see I tightened it
but i ended up right here
loosening it and just pushing it on a
little bit more so you want to make sure
that you got those clamps all tightened
especially these here after the mass air
flow sensor the computer is going to be
getting an accurate reading of how much
air it's taking in then you don't want
to forget to plug in the connector you
can see my dielectric grease on it
and it's time to reinstall the air
cleaner and for it's real simple you
just kind of wobble it in and once you
get it in place
just tighten the clamp down and then you
can put the last piece of the intake
tract on and that's it
now the tools that we used where the
throttle body cleaner and oil we use the
dielectric grease and the anti-seize the
screwdriver in the gasket scraper the
toothbrush the ratchets and sockets we
used in the hammer now the flashlight
and the little mirror would be four if
you had to get behind something or just
if you need help seeing anything that's
pretty much it if you guys have any
questions
I just feel free to ask me and thanks
for watching my video
yeah