muncheese

service light came on, so i took it to the shop and the guy gave me a bottle of carb cleaner spray. then told me to take off the intake hose and clean the butterfly valve. he didnt even hook a computer up to the truck to see what codes there were. so i sprayed and cleaned and the light still comes on after driving for awhile (like it has been doing) the mechanic said if the light comes back on to just buy a new throttle body, which cost $700. but i found i can buy the sensor for $100, how do you know if the sensor needs replacing. i am also considering take out the throttle body & cleaning it with THROTTLE BODY SPRAY and replacing the gasket. hopefully that will fix the problem. but i really dont want to spend $700. this happened because i forgot to change the air filter. can i just clean the throttle body really good and not even replace the sensor?

Jermsy

Okay, your truck has the honor of having a self contained throttle body. The IACV is actually built into the throttle body - which is what would've gotten blocked up from not changing the air filter. The TPS (I'm assuming that's the sensor you're mentioning), could be bad but I doubt it since you didn't mention any of the symptoms, but you could always pull it off and check the ohms. If you're getting a reading out of range, then it's bad.

Before you go dropping $700 on a new throttle body, try pulling the one you have and giving it a good scrubbing, especially in the ports that lead into the housing for the black box.

I wouldn't use straight up carb cleaner on yours though, I'd be afraid of jacking it up. I'd grab a can of mass airflow cleaner or something non-conductive. clean it out and let it dry.

muncheese

To scrub it, I would need a new gasket right?

redfishtd

you shouldn't have to change the gasket unless you damage it . Take the throttle body off-- clean the inside with throttle body cleaner and and old toothbrush- wipe out with rags ,make sure you clean the pivots real good , keep cleaner off the plastic parts .This gunk is hard to get off , yours must be worse .
One is the sensor TPS for position , the other is the electronic drive motor driven by the ecm . While you have it out write the numbers down .The map sensor is in the plastic housing ahead of the throttle body.
I am replacing the whole throttle body new For 200 buckets on ebay OEM , Common problem on my 2005 5.4 motor . I had replaced the tps for 80 bucks but the new one comes with everything .