Mazda 6–How to clean throttle body

Today I’ll tell how to clean throttle body on Mazda 6i 2008. But, as usual, disclaimer:

I’m not responsible for any damage you may cause to your car or, even worse, to yourself using instructions provided bellow. I’m not a professional mechanic and whatnot, so use these instructions at your own risk. Read entire post first and be sure you understand everything before you start it. If you’re in doubt – seek professional help.

NOTE: Chemicals you’ll be using are extremely flammable and poisonous, so use your brain, work in well ventilated area, away from open fire and don’t spray anything on hot engine (you’ll injure yourself and set your engine on fire)! Don’t work on engine when its hot, you’ll have to disconnect the coolant hoses and you can get injured. Don’t spill coolant as it poisonous, especially for animals, your dog will die from kidney failure :(!

Dirty throttle body can cause all sorts of problems: “sticky gas pedal”, poor gas mileage and poor throttle response.

For this job you’ll need:

• hex screwdriver
• 8mm & 10mm metric wrenches
• needle nose pliers
• Piece of plastic bag and couple of cable ties
• Empty 1 gal. milk bottle
• small brush (toothbrush, painting brush, any king of brush you don’t need)
• Carb and choke cleaner (or throttle body cleaner)
• Brake cleaner

Let’s get started.

Start by disconnecting the negative terminal off your battery.

Loosen two bolts holding intake hose (one on throttle body, and another one next to MAF sensor). You need to remove the hose that goes from intake hose (just squeeze the blue clip and slide it off).

Once the intake hose is removed, disconnect the throttle body position sensor. Slide the red clip a little bit and disconnect the TPS connector.

Disconnect the the upper coolant hose the goes to throttle body. Use needle nose pliers and slide off the clip that holds the hose. Than CAREFULY disconnect the hose. Use a small piece of plastic bag and cable tie to seal the open end of removed hose.

Now remove 4 bolts that hold throttle body (8mm wrench) – green arrows on picture below.

 

There is another lower coolant hose that goes from throttle body (red arrow on above image), you can reach that once you detach the throttle body. Do the same what you’ve done for upper hose.

This is how surge tank looks like inside (below). Cleanup that mess a little bit. Spray a little of carb cleaner on a rag and wipe it off (you won’t be able to remove everything though). Don’t spray carb cleaner inside surge tank!

And this is how your dirty throttle body may look like:

Now the fun part: get your carb cleaner, brake cleaner, brush and cut off the top of the milk bottle.

Cover the connector, coolant lines and remove rubber gasket from the throttle body (as carb cleaner dissolve it). Its better to replace the gasket each time you remove the throttle body, but I reused mine.

Now, spray good amount of carb cleaner inside the throttle body. Use brush to reach everywhere, clean it thoroughly. When its clean, spray the throttle body with brake cleaner, it will clean remaining carb cleaner.

DISPOSE USED CHEMICALS PROPERLY (or at least don’t dump it on the ground).

Clean TB:

Assemble everything in reverse order:

And you’re done!