OK, so far we (meaning me and you my new friends here on JagForums.com) have got my O2 Sensor working, fixed my windshield washer, and made some efforts with the transmission that have yet to improve performance but I'm still hopeful. Now I'm ready to look at cleaning up the throttle body as someone suggested might be a good idea. This is a 3.0 2002 X-Type with 94k miles on it. So, any suggestions, pictures, websites, or instructions on the Jag throttle body assembly, cleaning, and care, etc. will be helpful. I'm also interested in what product/s are best to accomplish the task. I love working on cars but at 67 my Jag is certainly a bit of a challenge for me at times. Of course I have the advantage of all you great folks to keep me going straight so, on with the challenge. Please tell me what you can. Thanks, JM

 

Jaster, cleaning the throttlebody is really easy. There are 2 things that are vital to doing this job though. The first thing to know is how to get the retaining clamp apart that holds the flexible tube to the throttle body. I find taking a pair of pliers to squeeze the raised parts of the clamp together slightly and then using a small flatblade screw driver to lift up the one part. At that point you can release the pliers and things will let go.

The second thing is once you have cleaned the throttlebody, odds are, the car is going to be flooded. To recover from this, when you go to start the car, hold the gas pedal to the floor as you crank the engine over. Keep the car floored until the engine catches. From there, you can ease off the throttle to maintain the engine running. It may also trigger the check engine light (does not happen all the time). After a few more starts, the light will clear or you can reset it using a code reader.

When it comes to cleaning the throttlebody, make sure you use throttlebody cleaner, not carb cleaner. There is a protective coating on the inside of the throttlebody and while at this point in the car's life, that coating is probably gone, the carb cleaner will only cause what may be left to be stripped off. But, spray the inside of the throttlebody till any brown that you see is gone. Also make sure to use one hand to open the butterfly valve and get the area behind the butterfly valve and also the edge of the butterfly disc. If you are going to have a problem with the throttlebody, it will be because the edge of the disc will get gummy and cause it to stick to the inside bore.

If you have more questions, let me know. But, once you do it, you will see how easy it is.

 

Thermo REALLY knows these cars, he's saved me a bunch of grief and I haven't even owned one that long yet.

If you are thinking of doing a tuneup, you pretty much have to pull the intake to get at the bank 1 plugs; you can save yourself the flooding and do a more through job on the throttle body with the intake OFF of the car, so now might be the time to do the plugs, too.

Surprisingly, I found the coating inside the throttlebody still intact on mine, at 133K, and I was also surprised to see how smooth the air horn actually was...I took it off expecting to find a flaky, rough mess!

One of the first things I do on a 'new' car is smooth the air horn bore and clean up the flash on the intake...on the Jag, both are smooth as glass!

Of course, I get to pull the intake again to replace the 'other' fuel-air sensor, since a few days after I replaced the front one, the back one crapped out. Murphy at work! (by the way, a fresh sensor not only picked up the seat-of-the-pants performance, it raised my in town gas mileage by 5 mpg!)

 

Great ! Thermo and Wa3Ra thanks for sharing your information with me. We're supposed to have a nice day Sunday so I'll schedule myself to service the throttle body and perhaps go ahead and do the plugs at that time. I've already serviced the air filter so hopefully this will continue to benefit performance. Again, I appreciate your taking time to include my request for information in your busy day. I'll get back here and let you know how I come out as soon as I'm finished.
Thanks