I cleaned my throttle body last night, and now the car is driving very roughly and feels like it might stall. I drove down the street and then back home where I opened the hood. I listened to the engine, and it sounded like it would idle regularly and then slow down and then rise again. When driving, it would do the same kind of thing. The red arrow (overdrive?) light flickered once.

After driving some more, it seemed like it would do ok at 35mph in the neighborhood, but it was a bit rough starting up from the stop sign. I gave up for now to come in and write this ...

Before the cleaning, the pedal felt sticky, and in the morning it needed to drive about 1/4 mile before it felt like pushing the gas pedal was fully responsive. Until that point, I was hitting 3000rpm before the car seemed like it would respond.

To clean the throttle body, I first removed the cover, and then removed the hose leading to the tb. I then unhooked the throttle wire, and then disconnected the sensor. To make things easier, I also disconnected the other side of that first hose.

I used carburetor cleaner on a rag to wipe the insides of the tb. I opened up the butterfly thing and cleaned inside. I only cleaned as far as I could get my fingers into there. Then, I reinstalled everything.

Any thoughts?

 

problem solved. The hose came off. This time, I used a socket wrench to tighten the clamp instead of a screwdriver.