Hey guys, First post here. Long time Ford owner and problem solver though.

I have a 2005 King Ranch SC 4x4 with a mere 105,000 miles that has a throttle body that started acting up again this morning. I know because I've had to replace it twice already. It idles rough, stutters, shakes and shutters and hopefully won't cut completely out on me like it has in the past until I can get it fixed.

Anyway, I'm not going to pay Ford the $500+ to put in the same OEM garbage again.

It looks like TB's go for about $200. Do you guys have any experience and recommendations with aftermarket throttle body's. I plan to install it myself. The OEM's don't seem to require a re-tune. Does an after market TB require a re-tune?

What about a performance TB like the BBK 80mm below?

http://www.stage3motorsports.com/175...ttle-Body.html

Do they require a special tune? They don't say so on their website.

I'm looking for reliability above anything else. My truck is basically all stock now. Maybe I'll play with mods down the road.

 

Have you tried cleaning the TB yet?

http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/f...ttle+body,6472

For 100 bucks you can try the reman.

 

glc thanks for the info.

Yes, after getting the truck to stammer home from work I did take the TB off and clean it. It wasn't very dirty though since it only has about 30,000 miles in it. Like I said, this is my second one in the truck. I'm not sure what it is that goes bad on these TB's that Ford is using but they have a problem with them. I assume it is in the electrical components since I've read you can't repair them. Price also is not necessarily the issue. I just want something of good quality and reliable. So I don't need to go reman or cheap as possible.

There was no brand name on the part so I don't know what NOT to get. :-(

 

Have you ever checked the injectors for leakage?

 

No, Does that present similar symptoms to the throttle body issues? how do you check those for leaks?

 

It will be running rich if it runs at all. Too much fuel causes stumbling. And if the leak is bad enough, it will hydrolock the engine. I would check them, especially since Ford issued a warning letter for the 2005s. They had a bad bunch of injectors.

 

Thanks for the tip Bluejay. I'll check into it. I want to say I've replaced the injectors. The odd thing is my truck hasn't thrown any check engine lights or errors codes yet. It would be nice if it did so I could pinpoint something like that.

My past experiences with these symptoms, both times the dealer has replaced the throttle body to fix the problem.

 

(RESOLUTION)

Well my King Ranch is back on the road. What the problem was, some of the boneheaded mistakes I made, what I learned, and the final resolution is as follows:

Last Monday as I drove to work my truck suddenly started driving rough, idling rough, shaking, coughing, sputtering, etc... I diagnosed these symptoms as throttle body issues because I've experienced that before having replaced the throttle body twice already. I did the immediate fix first and poured in some fuel injector cleaner Monday night when I got home. There was no check engine light at this time.

On Tuesday I went to crank the truck up and it gagged and choked and blew black smoke. I cut it off. The good thing was I finally got a check engine light. This meant I could start to diagnose the problem.

On Wednesday, after some research on this website I decided to order a Computer Programmer/Tuner. I norrowed my choices down to the DiabloSport inTune 3 and the SCT X4. I ultimately went with the DiabloSport inTune i3 Platimun because it looked like it might have a few more choices with tuning my air intake and ordering CRM's from DiabloSport looks pretty easy.

I also ordered new Motorcraft fuel injectors and a new BBK 80mm throttle body. I ordered all of these from Summit Racing. I am in the Jacksonville, Fl. area and I know there was a Summit Racing warehouse south of Atlanta, Ga. I figured I would get these items quickly.

On Thursday I received the new fuel injectors and throttle body. Wow that was quick! However the DiabloSport InTune 3 was shipping direct from the factory and wouldn't be here until Saturday. Unfortunately, I needed that first because I wanted to pull the error code and find out what was really going on before doing any work. So my truck sat in the driveway from Tuesday through Friday while I rode my bike to work. Bike, as in bicycle. Which was fine, I ride my bike pretty often to stay in shape. Just not usually 4 days straight. But I disgress.

Saturday finally came, and UPS decided to make me the last delivery of the day and got my InTune 3 to my door at 7:00pm. So yesterday I finally plugged it in and found out what was wrong.

The only error code the came up was P2198 - O2 Sensor or A/F Ratio sensor malfunction. This code can be the result of a number of issues like

*Oxygen (O2) or A/F ratio sensor or sensor heater malfunction *Open or short in O2 sensor circuit (wiring, harness)
*Fuel pressure or fuel injector problem
*Faulty PCM Intake air or engine vacuum leaks
*Faulty fuel injector(s)
*Fuel pressure too high or too low
*PCV system leak/fault
*A/F sensor relay faulty
*MAF sensor malfunction
*ECT sensor malfunction
*Air intake restriction
*Fuel pressure too high
*Fuel pressure sensor malfunction
*Fuel pressure regulator malfunction

I decided to take Bluejay's advice and tackle the fuel injectors first. After looking at them I did not recall ever replacing them. So I replaced the fuel filter first (which I had on hand) and then the fuel injectors. I removed the breather box and all of the vacuum hoses out of the way to get to the fuel rail including the fuel rail pressure sensor. No problems with any of this. The old fuel injectors were pretty dirty. I got everything back together fine and so far no problems.

Then I go to crank the engine and fuel started spraying everywhere from the fuel rail pressure sensor. The check engine light comes on. Ugh! What a mess. I remove the Fuel Rail pressre sensor, inspect it, don't see anything wrong with it and replace it. I tighten it sufficiently, check and clear all my error codes and re-crank the engine. Same thing, fuel sprays everywhere. So I take the sensor off and run to Autozone to get a new $120 sensor thinking there is something wrong with the seal. When they pull up the part on the computer the very kind lady notices the one I'm holding is missing the o-ring and directs me to a $3 pack of o-rings. She saves the day and that worked. Got the sensor back on and cranked the engine and everything worked fine.

At this point the engine is running as it should and Bluejay was dead on in his assessment of the fuel injectors being the issue. Problem solved and the truck is fixed!

But, I had this new BBK 80mm throttle body sitting there and decided what the heck lets put it on and see how it works. I'm leery of the OEM throttle body already and I had dumped $300 into this one. I wasn't after any extra HP. I just want something better quality than the OEM. It's a pretty simple add on so I went for it.

After 1 error code, 2 "Engine Failsafe Modes" and much hair pulling and cursing I decided the throttle body wasn't going to work and I was going to pull it out and put the stock one back in. That's when I realized the MAF sensor was not plugged in. Jeez what a dummy! I plugged it in and DUH! What a difference. I went for a test ride.

I will say that my truck now drives better than ever. It idles, smooth, revs seemlessly and accelerates smoothly. I drove it about 20 miles last night and haven't had any check engine lights or problems.

So with a little heartburn (mostly caused by my stupid mistakes) this repair turned out to be a success. I hope to have time to get into the tuning features a little more with the DiabloSport next weekend when I have a little more time to play with it.

Sorry for the long post but I tried to be as detailed as possible so that the next poor schlep in my position wouldn't make the same mistakes. Hope it was helpful. Thanks! GatorTAG