Originally Posted by vtec to vvel

Just got done cleaning out the TB's. What a PITA, but what a difference in terms of feel (and def. not a placebo effect).

My car pretty much sat in the garage 6.5 days a week since I was able to walk to work, until recently, I made a career change and requires me to drive 6 days a week ironically.

The SES light would come on and the OBDII would throw a MAF sensor code, which I cleaned a few months back, but the same code kept coming on. I figured it would be the TB's based on research on this forum. As you can see from the date of this thread, this has been an ongoing issue. Most of the time, when the car starts, I could tell if it was in limp mode or not based on the revs and clutch feel, and would have to shut down for 10 seconds and restart to get out of limp mode. Recently, it got to a point where I would restart and it would stall out, unless I gave it gas, and was quite embarrassing doing this.

Process took me 2 hours. I would highly recommend having your tools in line, as I kept having to scramble looking for stuff. The biggest tool that would have helped me were the vise grips, which I couldn't find mine and those clamps were a PITA to move around and had to use regular pliers, which made taking off the intake boots extremely difficult. I read of others being able to move the butterfly valve, however, I wasn't able to move mine around (granted I really wasn't putting too much pressure due to paranoia). Having a toothbrush would have helped clean out more, as I only had rags. I sprayed the TB cleaner liberally (with a towel catching any excess flowing).

After putting everything back together, I did a few re-learn procedures, including the gas pedal reset, TB closed positions, and idle air volume, and the window reset last (I disconnected the negative post of the battery), as well as resetting all my settings the way I had it before.

Car didn't have any issues starting up. It actually started up quicker (from a cold start) and was noticeable louder, and without any hesitation like some have reported. There is definitely a noticeable quicker throttle response, even when barely tapping the gas. And the car drives faster (the car itself didn't gain more power, but rather I got back what originally came with the car). Due to not having a toothbrush handy, I don't feel as if I got all of the gunk out, but did spray the TB cleaner liberally, let it soak, and started wiping down.