GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Our 2010 2.4L 5 speed auto slap stick is not very smooth at take off. It has the classic symptoms of a sticking throttle body. Really difficult to ease into the throttle for gentle take off.

I looked and could not find a throttle cable.

Is this a fly by wire? I'm gun shy to flip the butterfly, by hand, and clean it out good with carb cleaner, tooth brush, more carb cleaner, and compressed air.

Or is that fine and we just treat this one like any other throttle body?

Yes, all the Vibes from 05-10 are drive by wire. I haven't touched mine, but I did clean my son's car since it was idling a bit rough. It took a day or so for the idle to return to normal since it ran a bit higher after I cleaned it, but it does seem to run a bit smoother now with a clean throttle body. I just sprayed a small bit onto the throttle plate and used a clean rag to wipe it down. If you do use a cleaner, make sure it is throttle body safe. I don't know about the Vibe one, but some can be damaged by old style cleaners.

If your model was part of the gas pedal/ floor mat abortion recall, then that could be the problem. My son's had it done and when taking off the pedal goes too far initially due to the force needed to overcome it at idle. Mine did not have the recall done and is very smooth.

I bet it's the stinkin' recall! Now I have to figure out how to confirm it was done. Pretty sure it was. It was a corporate lease return.

Just check with your friendly local GM dealer service department. They can print out the history on the car with the VIN and let you know everything done on it. I got the report on the car before I bought my second Vibe. Both recalls were done on my 2010 GT and it drives just fine.

Interesting..........Now I'm leaning towards my first gut feeling......gummy throat & butterfly.

Has anyone cleaned the throttle body butterfly on a drive by wire?
I just don't want to screw up the servo (or what ever it is) by manually rotating it to clean the carbon and crud off of the butterfly & throat.

The symptoms are classic of a gummed up butterfly. But this is the first Vibe, and drive by wire, vehicle that I've owned. Just turned 50,000 miles.

SnowFish wrote:Interesting..........Now I'm leaning towards my first gut feeling......gummy throat & butterfly.

Has anyone cleaned the throttle body butterfly on a drive by wire?
I just don't want to screw up the servo (or what ever it is) by manually rotating it to clean the carbon and crud off of the butterfly & throat.

The symptoms are classic of a gummed up butterfly. But this is the first Vibe, and drive by wire, vehicle that I've owned. Just turned 50,000 miles.

Like I said, I did clean my son's 06 Vibe, and it is drive by wire. It was kinda dirty, but no where near as dirty as my Mustang's TB can get. His car has about 55K on it and I did it about 3 months ago.

Many thanks. I'll just clean the TBI like I normally do. Just not as wild, as I did, on my daughters Saturn. Took almost a whole can of carb cleaner. It was atrocious!

just wondering-has anyone posted a "photo how-to" done for a throttle body cleaning? a quick search did not reveal one.

i'd like to suggest that it might be a good topic for one (especially since i'd like to clean mine later this summer and could use the reference! )

I'll take pictures when mine is done.

TRB, Did you rotated the throttle plate by hand to clean the back side too. I'd hate to un-calibrate the stepper motors, if that's what's in there. Or did you just clean the front end?

Truly a brave new world here.

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=34614&p=460822&hil ... le#p460822" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's my 1.8 but removing the TB isn't that hard. At the time I had it off it was spotless.

I just pulled off the tubing and cleaned the butterfly outside, edges, and some on the back. I held it open and cleaned the throat all around, cleaning anything I could reach with the cloth I used. Spent less than a minute on it.

Have you checked to see if it sticks when the engine is off? We bought a 2005 Vibe 2 years ago and have always been annoyed with twitchy starts. Last night I found a Matrix post on how to fix it. Turn key to run position (don't start the engine). Press throttle all the way to floor and hold for 5 seconds. While pedal is all the way to floor, turn off key. Let go of pedal. I tried it and it fixed the problem. Throttle response seems improved. Apparently this reprograms something.
Of course, if the sticking is felt when the engine is off, then you do need to clean the throttle body.
Kevin

Does the "reset" apply to drive by wire? or are all Vibes drive by wire?

SnowFish wrote:Does the "reset" apply to drive by wire? or are all Vibes drive by wire?

05+ Vibes are all drive by wire, so I would say yes it is for the drive by wire cars.

Good info. Thanks. I'll give it a shot. Much appreciated.

Tried this on my 2009 Vibe (2.4l, 5spd) this am before leaving for work. I don't know if it was this or if the car and I are finally starting to understand each other, but I seemed to be able to make smoother starts coming off of stop lights and such.

Yea, I think it is better to reset the throttle position every 6 months.

The touchy throttle actually makes your front tires worn out faster because of the torque steer. It is even better to do it before snow fall at winter time.

I did the re-set. Pretty much the same response. I think it's more getting used to the drive by wire "lag". Not much, but more than the mechanical connection throttles. It's my Wife's car. She does really well in it. I just need more seat time to get the feel for it. For instance, she pulls 34mpg with it. Best I can do is 30mpg.