Celica Forums Install Guides and Technical Articles Engine and Transmission Guides Idle Air Control Valve - How To Properly Clean

Problem - Dirty Idle air control valve.

Symptoms - Poor idle, self reving at idle and poor performance at a constant rpm.

How to fix - Clean your idle Air control valve.

Difficulty - Easy

Time - Approximately 1hr

Tools - 12mm socket, pliers, phillips head screwdriver, 2 small hose clamps (or small bolts to plug the coolant lines)
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** If you don't know how to remove your intake prior to starting these instructions, put down your tools and don't attempt this**

There's a right way and a wrong way to do this. You could simply spray throttle body cleaner into the small hole on the inside of the Throttle body but it won't even come close to getting it clean.


Before/After:



Step 1:
remove the 2 Wire harnesses from the throttle body.

Step 2:
Remove the 3 Hoses from the Throttle Body. The Large one on top is easy. The 2 on the bottom are coolant lines so these 2 will need to either be crimped or you'll need to insert a small bolt to prevent the coolant from leaking everywhere. They are located underneath the Throttle Body and connect to the Idle Air control valve.




Step 3:

Remove the throttle cable from the throttle body.




Step 4:
Remove the 2 12mm nuts on the top and the 2 12mm bolts on the bottom.

**Note: I cleaned the TB and the IACV using the hole in the TB method to show how little gets cleaned without actually removing the IACV.**


TB before cleaning

**on the left side of this pic you can see the hole where most people clean their IACV the wrong way**


TB after Cleaning ** the IACV is already removed in these pics**




Now that the Throttle Body is OFF and cleaned we can move on to removing the IACV.

The IACV is located underneath the throttle body as seen in this picture...



Step 5:
Remove the 3 screws on the IACV.

You'll want to clean this out very good. You can see how dirty it still is after I sprayed it with cleaner from the inside of the TB.




Here's the IACV** see how filthy it is as well**


You'll want to remove the gasket prior to cleaning.


Here's what it should look like after cleaning



Pay close attention to the bar in this pic. It will be very dirty

That's all there is to it. Once you do that your car should idle nice and smooth and your car should run nice and smooth any time you're at a constant rpm.

wow, should have done that when I was putting in my hondata heatshield...I've had enough of my engine for a good month or so

about how long does it take for your TB to get that dirty? Does using an aftermarket intake make a difference?

I had always thought that the spraying way wasn't consistant with a well cleaning and rather difficult unless you have 4 arms or another person helping you rev the car and even that wouldn't be good enough, but good enough.
I have to admit though my throttle body and IACV wasn't nearly as bad as yours.
Nice write up.

My TB isnt usually that dirty. These pics came after I sucked up all the water into the TB.

At what mileage should this be done?

How similar is this on the GT?

on a GT it's pretty close to the same.

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there's no set mileage. it should be done whenever it becomes a problem.

Becareful with those smaller hoses connected underneath the TB
Be prepared to stock in some bolt to prevent coolant shooting out.
When i was doing mine, the coolant sprayed everywhere even got some in the header
I ended up donate my $5 t-shirt, a hanger and half an hour trying to suck up all the coolant that got into the header
And now my car has a weird water flowing sound underneath the car when i rev it at idle but the car runs pretty smooth tho.
Any clue what's wrong with it? would it be bubbles in the cooling system because I topped off the coolant receiver?

Hi Guys, I'm new here and was looking at this Guide. Well I'm glad that I just followed the wrong way of cleaning the throttle body as I don't want to mess with that bearing that is hidden behind the IACV. To be honest the Car felt so much better after I did the other guide, the one You just need to take off that big rubber air pipe and give the Throttle body a good spray of Injector/Throttle body cleaner. I'm not saying this is no good as I want to do this as well when I have a perfect time and weather. I just want to make sure though that I'll be able to do this right to avoid ruining that bearing inside. Thank You deniance for that information and glad Your Car is running smooth now...

The "Injector/Throttle body cleaner" guide which Boynxdoor is referring to:
https://celicahobby.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/136588/Intake-Throttle-Body-How-To-Clean.html

hi is it normal for my idle to be high after this? i corrected it by lowering the TB bolt that holds the butterfly open. RPM went back to 800-900. At first it was above 1500. Please email me the answer @ m.chan2@aol.com

Is it the same way to clean the TB that doesnt have the throttle cable on the throttle body, my car is a 2004 GTS Celica Tsunami Edition, and I can't find a good guide to clean it up, here is a pic for my TB
[postimage.org]
subir imagenes gratis [postimage.org]

I want to clean the Idle Air Control Valve of my 2000 Celica GT but I am wondering if the coolant hoses will begin to drain as much coolant as they can. Or will it just spray a little bit of coolant if I dont plug them up?

Hi peps i have just brought a Celica 2004 59000 miles was reading this good write up .... I have Error code P0505 and the box is saying i have an Idle Valve sensor Fault i am guessing this is the Black Box below the TB if i buy a new one is it just a case of Undoing the 2 Torx screws and bolting a new one straight on and reconnecting .. Thanks in advance Bob

How we doin boys hope everyone is well,

I've taken the gasket out of the IACV and realized there's no hope of reusing this gasket, I'm a little short on time so I don't want to order one from America (Because apparently no one in Australia cares about Celica Owners) and I was wondering:

1 - Is there any chance of somehow gluing the gasket down with a sealant? This thing has stretched or something, it doesn't fit anymore
2 - Forget the gasket and just use a silicon sealant maybe?

I'm aware that this is a rubber gasket and not silicon but will that affect the engine if I use a silicon sealant? I don't see why not but then again, there's always a reason not to do something.

Any help is greatly appreciated, eager to here from fellow Celica owners!