Throttle Body Cleaning 1.6 AEE

Anybody seen a guide around for how to clean a cabled throttle body?

The drive by wire type seem easy enough, but they would as they dont have any added complications, you just unplug and youre good to go.

Do I need to remove the whole unit and reassemble the cable too? Or do I clean this while its still attached?

Im assuming the throttle body wont need to be recalibrated as its on a cable, am i wrong?

Pretty intent on doing this myself, it seems pretty simple, just dont want to mess up anything important by doing anything i shouldnt.

Any tips/pointers as to where to go?

I can get images later if that helps.

Cheers chappos!

If the throttle valve control part (J338) is removed and installed or replaced the basic setting must be performed Connect the fault reader the "Address word" 01
Press keys 0 and 4 for the function "Introduction of basic setting" and confirm
Press keys 0, 0 and 1 for "Display group number 1" and confirm
After pressing the confirm key, the throttle valve positioner will be moved to the min., max. and three intermediate positions and the control unit will store each individual throttle valve angle in the non-volatile memory. This procedure lasts approx. 10 seconds. The throttle valve will then remain in the start position.

So am i right in saying that I will need to get a lappy and vag-com + cable to do this? Or is the only way to do it with a toohbrush and a cloth and some use of the throttle pedal?

I heard its around £50, tempted to get it if it means being able to do it myself.

Ok so i've bought some of that wynns jazz (throttle body and carb cleaner) - is this safe to use by the directions of the tin? Just run the engine and spray it down in short bursts?

With everyone in every guide ive read being so bent up about the electronics this immediately struck me as counter productive.

Just need an experienced hand to tell me if this is going to melt any of my lovely electrical components etc.

Cheers o/

I used the wynns stuff last week on a TT. But I removed the TB

I see, but how do you clean the inlet manifold as cleaning the throttle body feels like half a job?

Also the part im not so sure on is if I dissasemble the throttle body is the cable part, theres no good cleaning guides for showing a cabled throttle body - only drive by wire.

Im also unsure if the car will self calibrate the throttle body if I unattach it. This makes me reluctant to take it off as i need the car pretty much every day of the week.

Someone must have done it at somepoint im sure. The drive by wire throttle bodies just look a hell of a lot easier to deal with.
Hence why im wondering if its worth me cleaning the inside of the throttle body while its still attached to avoid any headaches i might get and render the car unusable.

The manifold didn't look to bad.
The TB was coated in kack, I have VCDS and performed a reset.
I feel your pain with a cable, have you had a nose around Golf specific forums for advise ?

ive looked at loads, but ive only found 1 which mentions an AEE and cleans it, no explanation :P

I think i might just do it the slow way, with a toothbrush and cloth and not spray it directly. The only downside is, it will be harder to see and will probably take an age, but then i guess i wont have to worry about recalibration.

I will give it a crack tomorrow probably. If i succeed i'll put up a guide for an AEE model

Ok I've got some good news, it was fairly straight forward to do, it looks like the cable driven throttle bodies are much simpler - so heres a quick overview on what I did. I will post pics and highlight them in a new thread to make a guide for anyone one after how to clean a cabled assembly later.

To start with i removed the air box or in my case my intake hose. The next step I pretty much did what it asked me to on the tin of wynns throttle body & carb cleaner.

Warmed the engine up, let it sit idle and spray very small short bursts around down onto the butterfly valve. The car will splutter a little as the cleaner gets to work on the grubby bits at the edge of the valve.

once youve done that 4 or 5 times shut the engine off. This part was pretty straight forward as now were going to clean the lions share of the grub off the throttle body.

I used cotton buds to get the stubborn corners and the under lip of the throttle body, I sprayed it with the wynns first, gave it a swab. Rinse and repeat until grubby hard to get to areas are done. You may want to push the throttle linkage up and it will give you access to the innerds and edges.

Next I took a cotton lint free cloth, sprayed it with some cleaner and used my finger to get the large areas done. Once you master pushing the linkage down and holding it while you clean these parts out its a doddle. Rinse and repeat until the body is grub free.

Next step, cleaning up the manifold. Push the throttle linkage up so the valve is fully open, put a short squirt or two of the cleaner into the manifold. Start her up, run for 20-30s rinse and repeat. I did this 2-3 times and its pretty tidy now.

Would be easier to clean without the assembly on, but this way is a whole lot simpler.

Job done, hope this will clear up any questions anyone has about the cabled assembly.

Noticed a much improved result in idling, it wasnt very rough before, but now its extra smooth and when it first starts up finds its idle much quicker, and if anything is slightly lower than it was which suggests to me it was partially blocked before without me even realising it.

I havent taken it for a spin yet, but from pushing the linkage while the engine was running, the throttle response seemed much sharper. I'll take it out for a spin tomorrow, but all in all a pretty quick job. I cleaned up the contacts to the body too while i was there. Didnt think it would do any harm ;)

Hope this has helped!

PS I also used a bit of machine oil on the edges of the butterfly valve to make sure I hadnt removed any lubricant from the works, you only need a drop or two max.