Instrumental
Member
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2012
- Posts
- 268
I had some time today, son home sick from school, so I decided to clean my MAF and Throttle Body today. Ended up changing the air filter while I was at it. I knew to do this stuff from my reading here and the OS, but I didn't find anything particular to the 5.3 engine, and it's a just a bit different. Here's my contribution to the community knowledge base! I'm open to edits from those more knowledgeable, just let me know.
Opening shot of the engine bay. I started by removing the ever so useful engine cover - bolt in the middle and then pull it off. Next came the air cleaner box at the bottom left of the picture. 4 rather large Phillips/regular combo screws. One to the top by the washer fluid fill, one to the right of that, two towards the bottom. I found it helpful to pull the radiator overflow tube out of the way, it was pretty flexible and not really secured down. A little jiggling and wiggling, and of came the cover.
With the air box off, the air filter was in plain site, and wow was it dirty. I don't think it had been changed in the original 48,000 miles before I bought it.
I'm getting ahead of myself, before popping in the new filter, I pulled off the bellows with the Mass Airflow Sensor in it, that's the part with the bar code on it. I loosened the hose clamp on the engine side of the bellows and pulled it out. Had to use a small screw driver to remove a gray 'safety' clip before I could unclip the wiring harness to the MAF. Once removed, I used some MAF cleaner on it, figured it couldn't hurt while I was in there. I did not touch the sensors at all, just used the spray and a bit of compressed air. Next the bellows and air assembly comes off of the engine, don't have a very good picture of that, too busy working! There's a hose clamp on the throttle body, and that whole assembly just pops off. The only other connection was the vacuum hose that's in the top center of the picture.
Here's the throttle body, ready for removal. (OK, this pic is post cleaning, forgot to take the picture first) 2 10mm bolts on the bottom, and 2 10mm nuts on the top. Another wire harness here, same gray safety clip to remove before popping it off. After removing, a liberal spray of carb cleaner and a tooth brush cleaned it right up. Wasn't very dirty, but it's spotless now! I did not need to move the valve at all, just brushed and sprayed. A little compressed air at the end to dry it off.
Throttle Body Removed - the gasket really 'pops' in this picture. I used a towel to clean up what I could reach of the intake manifold.
Difficulty: About as simple as it gets if you can tell a screwdriver from a socket.
Estimated Time: Less then an hour, though I wasn't in a rush.
Part Numbers: None, unless you change the filter
Cost: Can of Carb Cleaner - 3 bucks? Filter if you change it, mine cost 12.00
Assembly is the reverse, there were no particular pitfalls in the reassembly. I found a torque spec of 89 inch lbs on the OS for the I6. I went with that barring any correction from those more knowledgeable.
That's all I have, any comments?
Opening shot of the engine bay. I started by removing the ever so useful engine cover - bolt in the middle and then pull it off. Next came the air cleaner box at the bottom left of the picture. 4 rather large Phillips/regular combo screws. One to the top by the washer fluid fill, one to the right of that, two towards the bottom. I found it helpful to pull the radiator overflow tube out of the way, it was pretty flexible and not really secured down. A little jiggling and wiggling, and of came the cover.
With the air box off, the air filter was in plain site, and wow was it dirty. I don't think it had been changed in the original 48,000 miles before I bought it.
I'm getting ahead of myself, before popping in the new filter, I pulled off the bellows with the Mass Airflow Sensor in it, that's the part with the bar code on it. I loosened the hose clamp on the engine side of the bellows and pulled it out. Had to use a small screw driver to remove a gray 'safety' clip before I could unclip the wiring harness to the MAF. Once removed, I used some MAF cleaner on it, figured it couldn't hurt while I was in there. I did not touch the sensors at all, just used the spray and a bit of compressed air. Next the bellows and air assembly comes off of the engine, don't have a very good picture of that, too busy working! There's a hose clamp on the throttle body, and that whole assembly just pops off. The only other connection was the vacuum hose that's in the top center of the picture.
Here's the throttle body, ready for removal. (OK, this pic is post cleaning, forgot to take the picture first) 2 10mm bolts on the bottom, and 2 10mm nuts on the top. Another wire harness here, same gray safety clip to remove before popping it off. After removing, a liberal spray of carb cleaner and a tooth brush cleaned it right up. Wasn't very dirty, but it's spotless now! I did not need to move the valve at all, just brushed and sprayed. A little compressed air at the end to dry it off.
Throttle Body Removed - the gasket really 'pops' in this picture. I used a towel to clean up what I could reach of the intake manifold.
Difficulty: About as simple as it gets if you can tell a screwdriver from a socket.
Estimated Time: Less then an hour, though I wasn't in a rush.
Part Numbers: None, unless you change the filter
Cost: Can of Carb Cleaner - 3 bucks? Filter if you change it, mine cost 12.00
Assembly is the reverse, there were no particular pitfalls in the reassembly. I found a torque spec of 89 inch lbs on the OS for the I6. I went with that barring any correction from those more knowledgeable.
That's all I have, any comments?
