Monday, October 14, 2013

Maintainance

The Viper's idle quality had been becoming increasingly erratic over the past few months.  The problem is that the IAC gets carboned up and sticky.  It wasn't enough to really trouble me, so I let it slide for awhile.  Lately though, it'd gotten bad enough that it would sometimes stall when coming up to a stop sign.  It's reasonably common on higher mileage cars, and at 46K miles, mine was due for a cleaning and I decided I should probably just fix it.  The IAC is on the passenger's side of the intake, and is held on with just two bolts, with a big hose running to the air box. Since Acetone is the primary ingredient in many carb and throttle body cleaners, that's what I used, along with a tooth brush and some q-tips to clean all the way around the valve.  Then I sprayed the whole thing off with TB cleaner.


While I was at it, I decided to clean the throttle bodies too for good measure.  They get a ring of gunk around where the throttle blades seal, and can sometimes cause some issues.  Same thing here, Acetone and a tooth brush, followed by TB cleaner.
I noticed an immediate difference in the way the car runs after cleaning.  It starts quicker, and the idle is much more consistent.  If I'd known it would make so much difference, I'd have done it much sooner.

No comments:

Post a Comment