took IAC out, few questions

[cam98aro]

when i felt inside of the intake, there seemed to be grease in there, is that normal, or should it be clean inside of there?

i cleaned the carbon off of the IAC, but i left the intake side alone because i wasnt sure what is going on in there (i wouldnt think grease is suppose to be in there)

yesterday, my car's idle went really low (probably around 500-600rpm) and the car was shaking a lot, almost like a misfire.. it did it a few times, then stopped and i couldnt duplicate the problem.. car drove perfectly fine though, which made me to believe the IAC was to blame

anything else it could be? and i see the awesome engineers made it so you need a special tool to remove the tps and maf sensors :slap:

[hockeyman]

Re: took IAC out, few questions

To remove the MAF and TPS bolts, I took a dremel rotary tool with a flat carbide bit on the end. I cut straight across the bolts so I could use a standard screwdriver to remove them instead of buying the GM tool. Worked great!

As for the gunk in the intake; Yeah, I had that too on my old '96. It was a nasty carbon/oily buildup inside of the manifold. I removed the manifold and throttle body, stripped each of them down to the bare skeleton (no sensors) and soaked them in a soution of 50% Castrol Superclean Degreaser and 50% warm water. Let everything sit for about 1 hour, then scrubbed as much of the inside as possible with an old toothbrush as I removed each part.

I cleaned my sensors up with the solution too, but I didn't soak them. I just used the toothbrush to lightly scrub the sections with the most carbon buildup.

Put everything back together and the car ran awesome! ...then I traded it in a month later :(

[cam98aro]

Re: took IAC out, few questions

im sure i have the right bit laying around somewhere, i was just annoyed that they would do that

im not too concerned about it though

just wanted to find out if that stuff was normal or not

[ssms5411]

Re: took IAC out, few questions

No grease in there make sure it is all cleaned up, I used sea foam spray to clean it up from carbon build up in the TB and intake. Mines a 96' so it is easy to get the TB cleaned up.

[cam98aro]

Re: took IAC out, few questions

cool, does anyone know what size torx the tps/maf are?

i will just drill a hole in one of mine if i dont have the tool for it, i know i have a kit somewhere but i cant find it

[speedingturtle]

Re: took IAC out, few questions

t-15 or t-20 i think...... i replaced my TPS last year, fortunately i already had a set of torx bits for my ratchets. after owning a few other GM cars, you tend to learn ahead of time to get a few of the tools. i don't know why car companies think they have to use these though.

[landj]

Re: took IAC out, few questions

could be to prevent accidental removal by Jiffy Lube people. (nevermind the fact that 25 cents of solvent will clean that egr valve, lets replace it for $19.95. besides torx is usually better than Allen and Phillips and perhaps Robinson too in terms of stripping/slipping. wish everything was either socket-hex head or torx imho.

[Mighty Thor]

Re: took IAC out, few questions

Chances are that came from the TB. Usually there's a lot of carbon build up.

BUT DO NOT use any liquid or solvent to clean your IAC. It will mess it up and make your car idle funny and even stall.

[ssms5411]

Re: took IAC out, few questions

Thor, I've used brake cleaner and seafoam with a brush to clean my IAC the metal part would be like polished metal when I'm done and then hit it with some WD40 and it runs like a champ. Never had any problems with it. Is this a late model thing because of diffferent TB's? I haven't seen what the 99+ models before, just know the PCM controls them and the throttle. I know I replace all my Torx bolts with philips type bolts so they don't strip out as easy.

[cam98aro]

Re: took IAC out, few questions

oops, i loaded mine up with throttle body cleaner

[hockeyman]

Re: took IAC out, few questions

I too have cleaned my IAC with solvent (not soaked) and didn't have any issues afterwards. Maybe the sensor was faulty before cleaning it.

[cam98aro]

Re: took IAC out, few questions

I too have cleaned my IAC with solvent (not soaked) and didn't have any issues afterwards. Maybe the sensor was faulty before cleaning it.

thats basically why i cleaned it in the first place, because my idle started dropping for no reason, but the car ran perfectly fine

so far there has been no problems with it