The throttle body on my '96 Saturn has always been a bit sticky. It has never been cleaned in 125,000 miles, so it was probably way overdue. Today, I decided to give it a quick cleaning. Or so I thought.
I held the butterfly open and sprayed liberal amounts of carb cleaner into the throttle body. This was done without removing the throttle body. I was able to remove most of the black sludge. However, I noticed that the spray wasn't reaching a small section of the butterfly, so I attached the straw to the can and aimed the straw at that particular spot. This did the trick, but all of a sudden, the straw dislodges from the can and shoots itself into the manifold!
My first inclination was to remove the throttle body. With some instructions, it came off without too much trouble. Once the throttle body was off, I could see the straw. It was about 5" into the manifold. I didn't have pliers that were long enough, nor did I have a shop vac. My dad said that he could retrieve the straw, so I let him deal with it. This was a big mistake, as he somehow pushed it deeper into the manifold and the straw fell into one of the runners.
It was already 1 in the afternoon at that point. Book rate for an intake manifold job for this car is 6.9 hours. People on Saturnfans said that the job could be done in 3-4 hours, but I didn't feel like fussing with it anymore. So I called AAA and had the car towed to my mechanic.
Upon my arrival, my mechanic "scoped" the intake manifold with his portable snap-on camera. Of course, the straw could not be found as it had already fallen into one of the runners. He suggested that since the straw was plastic, it would do little, if at all, any harm to the engine. I talked to AcuraTech and he agreed. So, my mechanic loaned me some tools and I reassembled the throttle body and intake in his parking lot.
When my mechanic went to start it up, it barely started. It only started when he revved the engine and cranked it for a long time. Even then, it kept stalling. After several tries and enough smoke to cause a two alarm fire, it finally stayed running. We left it running for about 20 minutes while he worked on another car, and during that time, it ran just fine.
As I got in the car to leave, I made it to the parking lot exit and the car suddenly stalls. I tried restarting it five times without any success. It would crank and attempt to start, but it refused to start. It sounded as though the engine was not getting enough fuel. So I pushed it back into his shop and let my mechanic gave it a few tries. He wasn't successful, either.
By this time, he wondered if the timing chain was broken. Or something else was seriously wrong. Then, he decided to start the car as though it was flooded. Miraculously, this worked. Again, it smoked a lot, but it started and stayed running. He drove the car down to the parts store to pick up some parts and it did not display any problems. I drove it home (8 miles) and it was fine too. I drove it to the local restaurant and back earlier tonight, and it is running just fine. It sounds like there's a slight miss (it always sounds like that) or something, but there are no serious driveability issues.
So, do you guys think the engine will be OK? Is there any maintenance that I should do because of this incident? What do you think happened to the straw? Did it just melt in the combustion chamber?
Thanks.
I held the butterfly open and sprayed liberal amounts of carb cleaner into the throttle body. This was done without removing the throttle body. I was able to remove most of the black sludge. However, I noticed that the spray wasn't reaching a small section of the butterfly, so I attached the straw to the can and aimed the straw at that particular spot. This did the trick, but all of a sudden, the straw dislodges from the can and shoots itself into the manifold!
My first inclination was to remove the throttle body. With some instructions, it came off without too much trouble. Once the throttle body was off, I could see the straw. It was about 5" into the manifold. I didn't have pliers that were long enough, nor did I have a shop vac. My dad said that he could retrieve the straw, so I let him deal with it. This was a big mistake, as he somehow pushed it deeper into the manifold and the straw fell into one of the runners.
It was already 1 in the afternoon at that point. Book rate for an intake manifold job for this car is 6.9 hours. People on Saturnfans said that the job could be done in 3-4 hours, but I didn't feel like fussing with it anymore. So I called AAA and had the car towed to my mechanic.
Upon my arrival, my mechanic "scoped" the intake manifold with his portable snap-on camera. Of course, the straw could not be found as it had already fallen into one of the runners. He suggested that since the straw was plastic, it would do little, if at all, any harm to the engine. I talked to AcuraTech and he agreed. So, my mechanic loaned me some tools and I reassembled the throttle body and intake in his parking lot.
When my mechanic went to start it up, it barely started. It only started when he revved the engine and cranked it for a long time. Even then, it kept stalling. After several tries and enough smoke to cause a two alarm fire, it finally stayed running. We left it running for about 20 minutes while he worked on another car, and during that time, it ran just fine.
As I got in the car to leave, I made it to the parking lot exit and the car suddenly stalls. I tried restarting it five times without any success. It would crank and attempt to start, but it refused to start. It sounded as though the engine was not getting enough fuel. So I pushed it back into his shop and let my mechanic gave it a few tries. He wasn't successful, either.
By this time, he wondered if the timing chain was broken. Or something else was seriously wrong. Then, he decided to start the car as though it was flooded. Miraculously, this worked. Again, it smoked a lot, but it started and stayed running. He drove the car down to the parts store to pick up some parts and it did not display any problems. I drove it home (8 miles) and it was fine too. I drove it to the local restaurant and back earlier tonight, and it is running just fine. It sounds like there's a slight miss (it always sounds like that) or something, but there are no serious driveability issues.
So, do you guys think the engine will be OK? Is there any maintenance that I should do because of this incident? What do you think happened to the straw? Did it just melt in the combustion chamber?
Thanks.
