How TO: Clean a redtop IACV valve with carb cleaner

[corey240]

So your idle is a little crudy? Well this could possibly fix it. Somtimes a build up of crud and what not clogs the valve so you can do this simple cleaning to see if its your problem. If this does not fix your idle consult the search button at the top of the page and search "Idle". That should bring up a solution as it has many archived solutions.

WARNING: I am NOT responsible for any damages to your vehicle because of the write-up you are reading. I will ashore you that it would be hard to screw this up. I HIGHLY recomend the motor be OFF and COOLED down BEFOR hand. DO NOT get the carb cleaner all over the place as it will strip paint, melt tubes. COVER ALL ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS if possible. If you want to be safe unplug the injector harness and set it aside.

Tools:

1. Can of Carb Cleaner

2. Philips or Flatehead screwdriver.OPTIONAL 3. Piece of wood that will go between the intake runners.OPTIONAL 4. Air compressor and nozzle.

You can take that piece of wood and stick it between the intake runners and tap on the main block of the valve on the outside. You can also take an air compressor nozzle and blow air in there befor the carb cleaner to loosen stuff up, thes are totaly optional but you may have a heavy buildup so it would hurt to use the wood.Now....

First. Open the hood. Pretty straight forward.

Second.

Go to the intake manifold aka passenger side of the engine bay.

Now look at your intake manifold and look inside the middle intake runners.

There is a metal block in there with a grey plastic screw. (Sorry for the crappy pics from here out my camera isnt that great but you will see this stuff.)

Third.

Take your screw driver and unscrew the plastic screw and set it aside. You will see a hole there (obviously).

Fourth.

Take the red tube on the carb cleaner can and insert it into the nozzle of the can. Now insert that nozzle in the hole from the screw.WARNING: BEFOR spraying this make shore your face is away from the intake like a foot or 2 away because after a few seconds this stuff willl gurgle up and spray out of the hole like its full of liquid (which its not), you DO NOT want this in your eyes. Spray the carb cleaner into the hole (it is OK to use the whole can if needed it wont hurt anything).

Last.

Put the screw back in (carefull not to strip it, remember it is plastic). Clear out your tools and any other lose objects. Turn the car on and listen to that baby breath. If it does not work and you didnt use the whole can, try it again and use the rest of the can. If that doesnt work use that search button and find your problem.

Congradulations you just cleaned your iacv valve. Enjoy
Modified by corey240 at 11:11 AM 5/21/2007

[notslow]

solid post.

[BLKTOPS14SR]

Be careful with carb cleaner around plactic plugs. It will dry them out and cause cracking. CRC makes plug and sensor safe cleaner. Autozone and places like that carry it.

[S13FASTBACKSR]

good write up..and another thing you can do to clean the iacv is get an air compressor and stick the nozzle inside the IACV and spray the air in there..this loosens up and frees some of the built up carbon..another thing i did was take a long sturdy piece of wood that fit between the intake runners on the outside of the IACV and hit the end of the wood with a hammer to also loosen up built up carbon

[corey240]

ahh i forgot about the ait nozzle i go back and mention it, i searched idle and found all this stuff and no reall solid thing to do because i know some people will look there and say wtf are they talking about.

[9240sx]

You can also spray the cleaner in the large hose that hooks up to the intercooler pipe...That works good to..

[srpowered240sx]

good write up, i may have to try this strictly for peace of mind. my idle is fine, but maybe it could be better.

[hpmachine]

good write up, i may have to try this strictly for peace of mind. my idle is fine, but maybe it could be better.

^ this post made me LOL. I never knew how many problems a car could have until I joined this forum. Now I'm addicted (like everyone else) and I spend too much time browsing the rwd sr section just adding to my list of potential problems! HAHAA!!! Everytime I read some post that's like 'omg i need to fix this, that, and the other thing' I get all paranoid and start thinking, 'O crap I'll bet that's gonna break on my car next!!! lol!

[corey240]

meh, befor my motor blew and my car drove fine i ran the **** out of it not worrying aobut anything happening. now afteer building it, all that goes through my head is "you ddint tighten somthing down enough or its too tight, this motor isnt gona last, dont leave theh ood so you can push it home this time instead of hving it towed". of course i did everything by the book but its just allways in the back of my mind, and now that there 2 things wrong i am pissed after a month its not fixed after doing everything the webs say to do.

[sr28]

do u really need the whole can .. my car wont start now

[Emperor_Tha]

do u really need the whole can .. my car wont start now

hold the gas pedal while starting it.

you can also clean the throttle plate as will with using a rag or a toothbrush.

[nwmrkt]

hold the gas pedal while starting it.

you can also clean the throttle plate as will with using a rag or a toothbrush.

thats because the cleaner is like "clogging" the throttle up right? It goes away tho.? Even if you dont have a idle problem, still a good idea to do it? it cant hurt anything?

Thanks

[Emperor_Tha]

you clean out the carbon thats build up inside. carbon build up takes away your power because of less air volume. i did this to my cousing integra with 130k+ miles and he said that his car felt faster than before becuase it restore some lost hp.

[Deadrodent]

i assume it's the same process for a blacktop motor right? my screw is a rusted orange color too...

isn't this the idle air adjustment screw?
Modified by Deadrodent at 12:45 PM 9/1/2007

[adrianfromthecastle]

good write up...

one thing tho, any methods on how to get your idle screw back to the same possition it was? or do you just screw it in, and re-find where your idle's at?

[Emperor_Tha]

refind your idle back

[schanne]

A lil nervous now about my idle... It had trouble starting but now can't rev past 2500 rpm. It sounds horrible and the idle drops quick when you give it more gas. I used about half a can and I hope I'm just freakin.. I made some vids for sound if that helps, tell me and I'll post. I let it idle for 20 min. If I gave a lil gas it would hesitate and then finally climb slowly up to 2500 rpm. But if I gave it any more acceleration the rpms would drop down and you can hear some weird noises in the back round. Please help! What should I do?

[schanne]

Bump^ Because I have to have my car drive me to work in the a.m.

[carbully]

Arfe you saying that you performed this procedure and now you have this problem, like it was running fine before?

[schanne]

yes, it was running fine before.

[carbully]

Hey can we please have someone who knows comment about the safety of this procedure? I am an ASE Certified technician and I use brake clean all the time to clean out IAC valves all the time, has worked great for me, but I have never tried it on a 240, and I don't know much about the 240.

So, let's get some experts in here to comment. If this is not safe to do on the 240 we should probably throw this post out??

[IanS]

I do it on my redtop every few oil changes, I also clean my MAFs with electrical parts cleaner, I put 3K to 5K on my car a month for the last 3 years, and it hasnt caused an issue yet, Im still on my first IACV and MAFs to boot.

PS, I also have ASE certs

[carbully]

Cool. I am just the newbiwe and want to try to help this guy out if I can. As I have said, I have no 240 experience, so I am glad guys like you are willing to step in and help out. I have seen a lot of that going on and that's why I wanted to join this forum even before I get my SR240. Without support of a community like this I would not even try to run an SR here in Cali!

</brownnose>

[IanS]

Cool. I am just the newbiwe and want to try to help this guy out if I can. As I have said, I have no 240 experience, so I am glad guys like you are willing to step in and help out. I have seen a lot of that going on and that's why I wanted to join this forum even before I get my SR240. Without support of a community like this I would not even try to run an SR here in Cali!

</brownnose>

Yah, I knew nothing about Nissas when I got my S14 I was a honda nerd and after spending week after week just browsing the endless amount of info on here I did my swap, over one weekend, with 2 buddys who knew less than I did, that was three years ago, and Ive come a long way.

[Fonz]

A lil nervous now about my idle... It had trouble starting but now can't rev past 2500 rpm. It sounds horrible and the idle drops quick when you give it more gas. I used about half a can and I hope I'm just freakin.. I made some vids for sound if that helps, tell me and I'll post. I let it idle for 20 min. If I gave a lil gas it would hesitate and then finally climb slowly up to 2500 rpm. But if I gave it any more acceleration the rpms would drop down and you can hear some weird noises in the back round. Please help! What should I do?

I have the same problem and my car worked fine before. I did a search on this and i cant figure it out. Help

update- it starts now but now it wont even boost =/ any suggestions
Modified by Fonz at 2:25 PM 12/18/2007

[schanne]

I'm sorry to hear that your in the same boat as me now. I had my mechanic come over and reset the TPS and we replaced the MAFS. I was able to drive but now my car sits in the garage. It sounds clogged from cleaning the iacv valve. I'm thinking mine was so clogged it just moved some of the carbon around and is even worse now. I'll be doing a damn compression test in the next 2 days to see what those results are.

Try letting it run for a while and burning off that Gumout crap. Check your TPS and your MAFS. If you still have the problem, run some ecu codes and see what that says. I wish you the best of luck

[Fonz]

thx man i let it run for a bit and it seems to be out of the system. I gotta do a compression test soon to check if everything is alright now

[corey240]

sorry i never helped i havnt had a computer in 5 months. to the guys who have done this and have worse problems. you may have just sent the clog to a different place or it dried up whil flushing itself but if its still persistent after trying this maybe again i would suggest getting a new iacv unit or taking it apart and cleaning it the old fashion way or finding another intake manifold unit and hope it works. sorry for any mishaps but it may help in the end if its so bad it needed replaced to begin with for you future fellas.

[tep3]

I just tried these steps and now my car will not start

[schanne]

Did you not see the probs that i had or other people?