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Throttle Body Service or Failure


Maavalous1

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I was at the dealer for other work and was chatting with the mechanic about anything they see coming in on the 2013 Edge with 3.5L V6.

He said that one thing they see a LOT of is dirty or failed Throttle Body. That they recommend having it cleaned every 15-20K miles. For $65 no less.

So, I googled around for an hour or so and came up with NOTHING on this issue. Is this another "dealer service scam" or is this a REAL problem? He described it as causing the car to stall and, if bad enough, to not run at all. He also said that there was a "national shortage" of replacement throttle bodies due to the problem.

 

You'd think that would show up somewhere if it were happening with such regularity.

 

Anyone familiar with this issue or have this problem??

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my dad is a parts and service director for a Ford dealer in VA, and i have been having problems with my 08 3.5L. i asked him about it and his first thought was the throttle body as he sees alot of those come through. i would say, just by what he was telling me, that there are problems with them. not real sure about year models though.

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I can understand mechanical/electrical throttle body issues...but dirty TB's? Why would they be getting dirty TB's on 2013's? Strange info if you ask me!

 

Especially since there is an air filter ahead of the the TB, and there is no PCV vent pre-TB! Is the TB clogging from the intake manifold side? Blowback maybe?

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Some good discussion so far... but not the "confirmation" I'm looking for.

 

I did more googling around and found a couple of cases where people had to have their Throttle Body replaced... one at 15k and another at 33k... but no mention of any regular service required or further issues after replacement. Replacement with that low a miles sounds like defective part from the start.

 

I searched all the "official" Ford sources. The manual has no mention of it. In fact, one thing that makes me suspicious of "dealer service scam" is that the Ford info calls for radiator and tranny flush plus spark plugs at 100k and this dealer tried to tell me every 30k for flushes and 50k for plugs. Which I knew was bogus or Ford shouldn't be building engines at all. I've run other V6 engines 100k before doing any of that and my daughter has one of my old cars that now has 180k on it and has had ONLY plugs and an O2 sensor at around 110k and no other issues in all those miles.

 

So, looking for that person who can confirm that the TB will fail early and often if not serviced (cleaned) every 15-20k miles. Or that there really is a "national shortage" of TB because of failures... which sounds like a case for a recall to me. I still think the dealer is looking for a fast $65.

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Quote directly for the Ford Service Manual:

 

The TB :

  • controls air supply to the intake manifold by electronically positioning the throttle plate.
  • is not adjustable.
  • cannot be cleaned.

Not only is cleaning not required, it should never be done and would technically void the warranty on the throttle body.

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OK! Waldo, that's the type of info I was looking for!!

I assume you have the Service Manual? Where can I get one? And, most importantly, I would like to have the part on the TB that I can copy/paste into an e-mail to my "great" dealership service manager.

I had a feeling what they were telling me was WRONG!

 

THANKS!!!

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OK... I had a chat with the Service Manager at a local Ford dealer. He swears... and he sounded sincere... that there is a FLAW in the TB design. That Ford has fixed it. BUT... there are nowhere near enough of them available. "A nationwide back order status." according to him. That, when they catch up, there will likely be a Service Bulletin for this issue. He still thinks that cleaning it at 15-20k miles will avoid a failure until they can replace them.

So, I'm keeping an eye out for this. Still surprised there's no real info anywhere on the interweb.

Definitely going to DEMAND a new one before my warranty expires. This, to me, seems like it justifies a RECALL not just a TSB.

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  • 2 months later...

Demand that they replace your TB with the "new improved" version. I found out there has been a nation-wide backorder since spring... because they will ALL fail eventually. Hopefully the BO is clearing out. But that tells you that it is a problem for ALL the engines.

I will absolutely demand mine be replaced under warranty... just waiting a bit to make sure they can actually get one when I do. I'm thinking spring cause I have time left on the warranty.

This is a REALLY SAD thing for Ford to pull right when they are kicking butt in the marketplace. Sigh...

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  • 1 month later...

I was at the dealer for other work and was chatting with the mechanic about anything they see coming in on the 2013 Edge with 3.5L V6.

He said that one thing they see a LOT of is dirty or failed Throttle Body. That they recommend having it cleaned every 15-20K miles. For $65 no less.

So, I googled around for an hour or so and came up with NOTHING on this issue. Is this another "dealer service scam" or is this a REAL problem? He described it as causing the car to stall and, if bad enough, to not run at all. He also said that there was a "national shortage" of replacement throttle bodies due to the problem.

 

You'd think that would show up somewhere if it were happening with such regularity.

 

Anyone familiar with this issue or have this problem??

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I was at the dealer for other work and was chatting with the mechanic about anything they see coming in on the 2013 Edge with 3.5L V6.

He said that one thing they see a LOT of is dirty or failed Throttle Body. That they recommend having it cleaned every 15-20K miles. For $65 no less.

So, I googled around for an hour or so and came up with NOTHING on this issue. Is this another "dealer service scam" or is this a REAL problem? He described it as causing the car to stall and, if bad enough, to not run at all. He also said that there was a "national shortage" of replacement throttle bodies due to the problem.

 

You'd think that would show up somewhere if it were happening with such regularity.

 

Anyone familiar with this issue or have this problem??

my dad is a parts and service director for a Ford dealer in VA, and i have been having problems with my 08 3.5L. i asked him about it and his first thought was the throttle body as he sees alot of those come through. i would say, just by what he was telling me, that there are problems with them. not real sure about year models though.

. Just took my 2011 ford edge in today and they are replacing throttle body but it is on back order
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  • 2 weeks later...

My 2013 Edge is in the shop as I type to have the throttle body replaced. I can tell you the list of symptoms that I experienced and hopefully this will help some of you others. I have 29,000 miles currently on the vehicle. I took it in initially because I noticed it to be shifting hard (almost like a slip) generally from 2nd to 3rd gear. It really just felt unstable at times, including when coming to a downshift and then a quick upshift again, it would hesitate or kick. When they looked at it they found that the transmission fluid was a quart low with no visible signs of leak whatsoever. Addressing that did not solve the issue, so they then reset the "adaptive learning" capability of the edge to see if that would help since I bought the vehicle used. That also did not help. I had also noticed that the gas mileage was getting consistently worse, I was barely getting 16 to 17mpg on average. In the shop yet again, and they called to tell me that the throttle body was bad and needed to be replaced. They stated this would cause all of the above symptoms. I have a family member who works for this service dept and I have done a commercial for the dealership/service dept so I know they would not be giving me the typical run-around that some experience.

They gave me another 2013 edge to drive as a loaner and it really made me realize just how poorly mine had been shifting gears and sucking gas, but I have noticed in this loaner vehicle that it surges RPM's while at idle, so I would guess that this vehicle will also have a failed throttle body in the near future. It is definitely a flaw in the throttle body and I would not at all be surprised to see a recall on this in the next couple of years. I will post an update after the I get the vehicle back and see how its driving.

Hope this helps some of you out.

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