How To Clean Your Jeep Grand Cherokee's Throttle Body?

By Nick Marchenko, PhD

Updated: July 18, 2023

The Jeep Grand Cherokee's throttle valve is an element responsible for supplying air to the combustion chambers of the engine and, accordingly, for the correct fuel-air mixture formation. When you press the accelerator pedal, the throttle opens, letting more fuel into the cylinders. The operation of the throttle valve depends on the amount of air-fuel mixture. 

In the operation process, the throttle becomes clogged with dirt and dust that enters it along with the air.

All this begins to settle on the body and interfere with the normal operation of this unit. When the throttle is heavily clogged, the Jeep Grand Cherokee shows the appropriate signs. Symptoms of a clogged throttle body include:

• Floating revolutions at idle;
• "Fails" when pressing the throttle pedal;
• Loss of dynamic performance - poor overclocking;
• High fuel consumption; loss of car power

If all the symptoms match and you last cleaned the throttle valve long ago, it's time to do it.

What do you need to clean your Jeep Grand Cherokee's throttle body?

The list of items needed for cleaning is quite simple and can be found in almost every garage. 

Among them:

• Throttle body cleaner, or Throttle body and Air Intake cleaner (which in general are the same);
• Carburetor cleaner -  may also come in handy;
• Brush;
• Rag(s);
• Screwdriver

Throttle valve cleaning is recommended approximately once every 75,000 miles (121,000 km). There is no clear schedule, just as there are no clear rules, but periodic cleaning of the throttle valve positively affects the operation of your Jeep Grand Cherokee. If you start to notice strange symptoms - it may be time to start cleaning.

How to clean your Jeep Grand Cherokee's throttle body?

The throttle valve can be cleaned in two ways - with or without removing the unit from the Jeep. This article will show a method without removing the throttle from the Grand Cherokee. 

This way doesn't differ in effectiveness from the second, but it is simpler because it relieves a large part of the work. However, removing and cleaning all the components is better if your throttle valve is dirty or doesn't function as it should.

Disconnect the negative battery terminal

Disconnect the negative terminal from the battery. This is necessary to de-energize the Jeep Grand Cherokee and prevent electric shock.

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Detach the air duct from the throttle body

Disconnect the air supply hose from the air filter to the throttle. Most often, it is attached with a clamp - but it is possible that it will be attached by another method - disconnect it before removing it.

Disconnect the hoses and sensors that are connected to the throttle

Various wires and pipes are connected to the throttle valve - some are sensors, and coolant flows through the tubes. When disconnecting the pipes, they must be fixed vertically and plugged with a spark plug to prevent the liquid from leaking.

Label all sensors and hoses

After washing the Jeep Grand Cherokee's throttle, you will have to put everything back in its place, and if there are too many wires, you can get confused. Therefore, sign and mark everything you disconnect so that it is clear to you what and where it was located, and after the washing process, you can return everything to its place.

Apply throttle cleaner to the surface

Use some cleaner on the throttle body. Leave it for a while to do its job. If there are persistent contaminants, 3-5 minutes should be enough for the cleaner to remove them.

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Start manually cleaning your Jeep Grand Cherokee's throttle body

Start cleaning the throttle with the help of a brush (not too stiff, so as not to scratch the blade), rag, or cotton swab.

If the contamination was not removed the first time, there is nothing wrong with applying the cleaner again and repeating the operation until complete cleaning. A clean throttle valve should be almost shiny and not have any leaks or other traces of contamination.

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Reassemble the entire system

After the throttle body cleaning process is complete, put everything back together and check that everything works as it should and that there are no extraneous noises or other symptoms.

How to adapt your Jeep Grand Cherokee's throttle body

On newer Jeep Grand Cherokee vehicles where the throttle is electronic (actuated by an electronic pulse rather than a cable), a special throttle position sensor tracks where the throttle blade is currently positioned. Before starting the engine, this blade is perfectly straight at an angle of 90 degrees.

It fits perfectly against the walls from above and below and does not let in excess air. But over time, dirt settles on the walls of the air channel or the blade. Due to this dirt, the throttle cannot close completely and remains in the same position. 

The sensor reads this position, and the Jeep Grand Cherokee's computer “thinks” this is now the reference value.

That is, the neutral position of the throttle blade is its reference (factory value), considering the thickness of the layer of dirt that has settled on it. This is completely normal, as it is provided by the factory, and is necessary to keep the engine running in working condition.

However, after we washed off the dirt from the throttle body and returned the surface to its original appearance, the Grand Cherokee's computer would not “understand” this.

It has no indicators informing it that nothing prevents the throttle blade from closing completely - the car's computer will still “think '' that there is dirt there and, accordingly, maintain the blade in the position it remembered. 

This will cause a gap between the throttle walls and the blade, allowing at least a few millimeters for air to pass through.

Thus, the Jeep's computer will “think” that the throttle pedal is constantly pressed, even if this does not happen, and more air will pass into the cylinders through the newly created hole. 

This has a detrimental effect on the engine; it constantly feels the load, which will be especially noticeable at idle, when instead of 800 rpm, it will be 1500–2000 rpm. This will lead to overheating and reduce the engine's resources.

Therefore, after cleaning the throttle valve, it is necessary to calibrate the blade to the factory position.

The throttle valve adaptation algorithm is universal for many Jeep Grand Cherokee models.

Warm up the engine to operating temperature, and then turn it off and wait 5-10 seconds. Turn on the ignition and wait 3 seconds. After that, you need to press the throttle pedal 5 times for 5 seconds and then release it.

If this doesn't help, it means that your Jeep Grand Cherokee's system is programmed differently. The throttle valve adaptation algorithm must be written in your Grand Cherokee's owners manual.

To Wrap Everything Up

Cleaning your Grand Cherokee's throttle body is important because it prevents dirt from getting on the blade or the formation of gaps between the blade and the body itself.

While doing this cleaning procedure, one has to be patient and careful to achieve the desired result.