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Stock Problems/IssuesDiscussions related to warranty related issues and repairs, or other problems with the OEM parts and software for MINI Cooper (R50), Cabrio (R52), and Cooper S (R53) MINIs.
what makes you think it needs cleaing? Anyway, if you're going to do it, the hose clamps aren't like normal clamps. You pop them open with a small flat blade screwdriver. They can be reused, if you have pliers that can close them. If not, you need some standard hoseclamps to replace the stock ones with.
You can use some engine safe degreaser or whatever to clean them. But I'm very curious what you think you'll be getting from the effort.
I think he might have read somewhere that cleaning the throttlebody will help the car run better. This is true on some applications, but on the MINI I'm not sure if it helps. First off, I do clean mine when I have it off. I just spray it down with a throttlebody cleaner you can get at autoparts store. Let it sit for a few minutes and wipe the insides out with a rag. Spray the flap down and move it back and forth and then wipe away the residue. After that you are done. It's funny, my wife's Celica and my Suzuki Sidekicks throttlebody always has more carbon build up than my MINI's. It's not going to hurt you to clean it at all however. If you clean it while it is still on the car, make sure you get no lint down into the throttle body and use the rag to cache any excess cleaner from going into the throttlebody.
I agree with FatherDeth. More than likely, the throttle body will be clean because the fuel enters the system after it (i.e. at the fuel rail). It might have some dirt or grime in it if your air filter is excessively dirty or has a hole in it.
In my years of cleaning carburetors and throttle bodies, nothing beats STP Carb Spray Cleaner. Where many cleaners have only three ingredients, the STP product has five. The pressure in the can helps force the gunk buildup out of whatever you are cleaning. And there is hardly any residue left afterward. Best to take it off to do a thorough job.
it's an '03 with 91k miles, i dont think it had ever been cleaned. it was covered in soot/dirt.
i had it off when i was putting in my detroit tuned diverter valve, so that made it an easy choice to go ahead and clean it.
I used carb cleaner and a rag and got it looking nice and new again. i don't know for sure if it did much, but it was VERY dirty before. the car does run a lot smoother now, but that could be from the new diverter valve and alta IC couplers....
it's really not that hard to take off. shouldn't take more than an hour to get it off and back on if you know your way around some tools and the engine a bit.
I cleaned the throttle body on my R53 mini cooper S today.
It has 80K miles and the throttle was reasonably dirty.
After cleaning it the car is definitely smoother at low speed. I had noticed that when I am going slow, barely touching the pedal, or going at a constant speed with minimal throttle, the car felt a bit jerky. Not a lot, a passenger probably wouldn't notice, but it was there.
After cleaning, the car is noticeably smoother.
Here are my images, which I think are pretty self explanatory but I'll add a few captions.
Under the lid.
Remove Intake Pipe. There are clips at the front end which need a flat head pry-driver to free. The other end just pushes into the air box. There is also a small finger that locates at the ECU box, so careful not to break it. Get the front end off and the air box end will wiggle, wiggle and rotate out.
The throttle body!
Use a flat head driver to 'spring' open the clips. Most will not go back on, because you can't squeeze them tight enough. I guess they need a special tool. I replaced mine with jubilee screw-up types. The type for screw-ups. I got one back on, so I'm only a 90% screw-up.
Throttle butterfly revealed.
Pull the electrical conenctor and then the vacuum hose.
Vacuum hose off. Take out the 4 bolts holding the throttle body. I took 3 out and then wondered why it didn't come off - duh!
I also took the black bracket off giveing me more wiggle room. There are 2x 13mm bolts and 1x 10mm nut.
Throttle body out! Dang it's rather dirty!
Even when clean it doesn't close 100%, but it's not good to be filfy like that...
Intake pipe to the supercharger.
Now - clean the throttle body. I used brake cleaner and a few kitchen tissues. Put it all back together and enjoy a hopefully smoother ride! I also disconnected the battery while I re-assembled which I thought might force it to 're-learn' the throttle behaviour.
NOTE: I wanted to replace the oil in my supercharger. The aux belt end is easy, but there is also a plug on the other end near the water pump. I thought I could take out the supersharger air intake pipe (below the throttle body) and use a bendy screwdriver and syryinge with tube to do the job. Do not waste your time like I did - It is not possible to withdraw the air intake pipe because it gets stuck against the radiator fan.
I removed the pipe retainign screw down the front of the engine, all the other bits connecting to that pipe and pushed and pulled my best. The pipe would simply not get out the way enough to access the oil plug. Trust me; if it were possible I' have done it. I have a flexible inspection camera, flexible screwdriver, syringe with flexible tubing and pleanty of other tools. I could not get access it and then spent 1 hour trying to get the air pipe reatining screw back in place with confined access. You really must enter 'front end service mode' and get the radiators out the way.
Last edited by ssashton; Oct 16, 2016 at 03:46 PM.
Thanx for this post. My 05 R52 went into limp mode and I got back home with a P1229 code. Opened up the TB based on this post and found a small bit of rubber jammed in the plate. Pull it out, reset the code, and it's good. Awesome!
A note: If you are removing the throttle body to give it a good cleaning you will need to replace the O-ring between the throttle body and the intake manifold. If anyone also wants a 2nd article to help with the replacement please check out ours below.
