Throttle Surge; P0102 Code; RPM Unsteady; Throttle Body Cleaning
 

Hello Forum,

I have a 2000 s80t6. My RPMs were jumping and the car was surging or cutting off. The shop cleaned the ETM/throttle body. Then, the RPMs were stable for a few months. Now, it started happening again, with OBD code P0102. The shop suggested a new throttle body as the shop said you couldn't clean it more than a couple of times. So, instead of having the shop replace the throttle body, I did the cleaning myself of both the Mass Air Flow sensor and throttle body/ETM, but forgot to put in a gasket. The RPMs were stable, but after a half day of driving the problem came back. I cleaned the throttle body a second time and put a new gasket back in this time. The RPMs were stable for a while, then the pulsating RPMs happened again.

I noticed the pipe going into the throttle body has oil in it (maybe from blown turbo seals? or is it coming from the throttle body?). I tried to clean it out as I thought the throttle body would get dirty from air blowing across the oil covered pipe from the air filter to the throttle body.

So, the question is, must I fix the turbo seals (ie, rebuild the turbos) before it makes sense to replace the throttle body and air sensor? Must I have an oil free pipe from the air filter to the throttle body?

It looks like new throttle bodies are $450 USD (I don't want to risk a used throttle body). If I buy a new one and then it gets all gummed up with oil, that seems like a waste, but fixing the turbos would cost more than the car is worth with 170k miles on it. (The throttle body wasn't that dirty when I cleaned it the first time, a few months after the shop cleaned it).

I was able to clean the throttle body and put the car back together twice, but I'm not a mechanic and that was my first foray into working on the car. So, rebuilding the turbos seems like a complicated endeavor.

The car can't be worth more than $2k to $3k, but I couldn't buy a better car for that price, and I want to keep the s80 for my teenager to drive. I just can't have it shutting off in traffic as he turns left (like it did with me).

Please let me know what you recommend - thanks!

TreeStone, clean the Throttle body, Hose coming from MAF, replace the PCV and rest of turbo hoses if any. You will be fine.

thanks for the reply! is there a kit for that work? my attempt to clean the molded plastic pipe with the MAF in it didn't work so well. What do you recommend? soak it something? Is it hard to replace the turbo hoses? Do throttle bodies really wear out? thanks!

Just by the PCV box from FCP and install it, before installing do clean the holes attached with engine where PCV box will be placed, plus check the air lines connected to Intake manifold they should not be clogged. Regarding cleaning the hoses, just use the carburetor cleaner and then air pressure. Remember while working with hoses or other stuff you should be very careful because most tiny parts are made of plastic when can break easily. Plus after installing drive at least 100 KM to see the results, there should not be any smoke out of dip stick, plus Turbo hoses also need to be cleaned. Turbo hoses are pretty easy to clean if you know how to do it. Throttle bodies don't go easily if you are good driver. Try another clean up.

Don't use Carburetor clean to clean MAF, For that you need MAF cleaner by CRC.

thanks - i'll give it a try

just an update - i spoke with a very helpful tech at xemodex (inquiring about ETMs) and he told me how to check the ETM by turning the battery power on (with 2 turns to the key, prior to ignition), then put the fuse to the ETM in, and the ETM had the proper 1 click plus 12 seconds of whine. Also, in removing the dip stick while the car was running, black smoke was drifting out of it, which suggests (I understand) a PCV issue as the pressure should have been negative and nothing should have come out. Additionally, I pulled the MAF power off while the car was running and the car shut off (which is supposed to happen I understand if the MAF is working properly). So, it seems the PCV is the first stage of fixing the car (which has been dripping oil in the parking spot, which I hear is an indicator of PCV issue). So, the issue is how much trouble is it to replace the PCV and which kit to buy. I'm looking at $300 USD from FCPEuro, and $83 for a smaller kit in Atlanta (where i live). It seems like there's a good bit of variety in the kits. Is it important to go with the FCP kit?