Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting TB clogged with carbon?!? Is this for real?

Instructions for cleaning the throttle body have been posted many times in the past both here and on the Contour-l list. Do a search and you will find a wealth of information.

Great, thanks guys

http://www.contour.org/cgi-ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=3&t=003724

This has a post describing how to clean the upper intake, EGR ports, and TB. You could probably get away with just pulling the TB off the upper intake - you'll need a new gasket for this though. The real problem is right behind where the TB bolts onto the upper intake - there are three ports for the EGR that I will bet are completely plugged up with carbon. They were on my car, and I cleaned them out at about the same mileage your car has. I used to have pics of the clogged ports on that post, but my web server got screwed up. I still have the pics if you want to see them - just e-mail me at sting45470@yahoo.com and I'll send them to you.

Poor design of the EGR ports on Ford's part, IMO. Otherwise a great engine though.

The dealership here charges $74/hr...so that is something you could really save money on if you could do it yourself.

Eric

What are the signs that your TB needs to be cleaned?
The reason I ask is because in the last 3 weeks my car has failed to start twice after I drove it about 3 miles to work. Both times it did the same thing. It starts up and then it dies. It will stay running if I hold the gas down. As soon as I let up on the gas, it dies. If I put it in 1st and drive it about 20 yards, it's fine. Anyone know what's causing this? This is a 99 SVT with 34,000 miles and a KKM installed.

Here's a pic of the back of a Contour throttle plate with 154,000 miles on it . I scraped a bit off so it would show how thick it was (1/16 inch or thicker) .
On this picture , you can see the carbon deposits in the EGR passage where the throttle body bolts to the intake (intake manifold on left , TB on right) . The passage is the small "U" shaped one under the large opening . It's almost totally clogged with hard stuff .


The rest of the pics are HERE

GREAT PICS !!!!

Turns out it was the #3 spark plug wire. The shaft was completely spiderwebbed. Like it was shattered. No wonder it was running so rough, i was only running on 5 cylender's!! BTW, I did clean the whole upper intake manifold and the Throttle Body (dremel'd down the screws on that baby too) and it was just sick. I mean the carbon was CAKED on there, a good 1/8" thick easy. The EGR ports where completely clogged! I cleaned that out and the car ran a little smoother, gas mileage went through the roof (extra 50 miles to a tank, still a little lower than the normal 280-300, but better than the 219 i was getting!), even though it still ran rough (problem was the wires). So I found the problem when I was putting in some new Bosch +4's.

I had put in motorcraft OEM replacments at around 60k, but I figured it must have been a bad plug for it to run so rough. And the rough running was sporatic too - every now and then it would run smooth, but then it would get rough again, usually after the engine warmed up. I guess I should've just changed the wires at 60k with the plugs!

BTW, using a metal polish made that throttle body just shine!! smoothed out the scratches from the sanding too. I was sad to cover it back up when I reinstalled it back on the intake manifold!