Scroll down to The Fix if you want to bypass my story.
The Story:
About 5 weeks ago I purchased my 2011 Ford Fusion, great car! But the throttle Response was very poor. At certain mph I can let off and coast. Then normally press the throttle again the amount that it needs to go to be normal but the car almost doesn't have any throttle. I have to press it even further to get any response. From a stop the throttle is also very weak. I have been looking into the CAI and the tune to fix the problem.
I was reading about the troubles with the Ford throttle body's motor contaminating the electrical component or board inside causing a short or CEL and it not functioning properly. I then decided to see what throttle body model I had; because on my CarFax it shows mine was replaced at 16k miles back in Fall of 2012. It now has 27k miles on it. To my surprise it was replaced with the old part number throttle body DS7Z-9E926-A (old) The new part number is DS7Z-9E926-D (new). Supposedly a revised version that takes care of the issue.
I decided To take the TB off and see if I could clean the inside of the Electronic area for any contamination. Logically, if this is the problem Ford is having with these, why not clean the inside... :screwy:
Granted my TB only has 11k miles on it and I am not having any problems. Very easy to get off and apart, only 10 min. You will need a Torx bit set. I did not find any debris inside mine at all. In fact the brushed motor is sealed and the tiny electronics board has a clear silicone protecting it. Maybe I just got a revised version that was one the first ones before they changed the part number, who knows.
The Fix:
I noticed the throttle flipper plate was sloppy clicking back and fourth. I even thought the 2 screws holding it to the shaft inside were loose. They were not. To my surprise the slop or play was coming from the gear mesh between the motor gear and the middle plastic gear inside. This is my first time tinkering with electronic throttles. I am used to cable driven TB's.
The motor mounting screws have some play so you can adjust the gear mesh. I also noticed a little bit of wear on them even only after 11k miles. I can only imagine how bad a 50k mile or 100k mile throttle body is!!! The throttle response must be horrible.
All you have to do is slide the white middle gear off and slightly loosen the two motor mounting screws to slide it closer to mesh. Don't tighten them all the way yet; just to where you can move the motor to test if the mesh is closer without binding. If you have a lot of miles on yours, I would turn the white gear 180 degrees before you slide it back on the shaft. This way you will have new teeth meshing with the motor. About only half of the teeth are used on the gear for normal operation. Tighten the motor back down and slide the gear back on the shaft. Make sure there is no friction or binding and the white gear slides on easy (See pictures below). You maybe have to turn the gear a little for it to fall into place. You may have to do this process 3 or 4 times till you feel you have it just right.
Once you have everything setup, blow everything out with a can of air or air compressor. Clean the motor connections with isopropyl alcohol if you accidently touched them. Use blue locktite on the screw threads if you want. Just tighten them back to how tight they were to come off. I believe the Torx bits I used were T15 and T20. The throttle body bolts to the intake use 8-Nm with a 1/4" torque wrench or just snug them up hand tight, about how tight they were when you took them off.
The throttle is at least 50% better now after I changed the mesh. I still pan on getting the CAI and tune one of these days also.
Movement after adjustment:
Apart:
Motor and middle gear removed:
Sloppy Mesh:
Tighter Mesh:
The Story:
About 5 weeks ago I purchased my 2011 Ford Fusion, great car! But the throttle Response was very poor. At certain mph I can let off and coast. Then normally press the throttle again the amount that it needs to go to be normal but the car almost doesn't have any throttle. I have to press it even further to get any response. From a stop the throttle is also very weak. I have been looking into the CAI and the tune to fix the problem.
I was reading about the troubles with the Ford throttle body's motor contaminating the electrical component or board inside causing a short or CEL and it not functioning properly. I then decided to see what throttle body model I had; because on my CarFax it shows mine was replaced at 16k miles back in Fall of 2012. It now has 27k miles on it. To my surprise it was replaced with the old part number throttle body DS7Z-9E926-A (old) The new part number is DS7Z-9E926-D (new). Supposedly a revised version that takes care of the issue.
I decided To take the TB off and see if I could clean the inside of the Electronic area for any contamination. Logically, if this is the problem Ford is having with these, why not clean the inside... :screwy:
Granted my TB only has 11k miles on it and I am not having any problems. Very easy to get off and apart, only 10 min. You will need a Torx bit set. I did not find any debris inside mine at all. In fact the brushed motor is sealed and the tiny electronics board has a clear silicone protecting it. Maybe I just got a revised version that was one the first ones before they changed the part number, who knows.
The Fix:
I noticed the throttle flipper plate was sloppy clicking back and fourth. I even thought the 2 screws holding it to the shaft inside were loose. They were not. To my surprise the slop or play was coming from the gear mesh between the motor gear and the middle plastic gear inside. This is my first time tinkering with electronic throttles. I am used to cable driven TB's.
The motor mounting screws have some play so you can adjust the gear mesh. I also noticed a little bit of wear on them even only after 11k miles. I can only imagine how bad a 50k mile or 100k mile throttle body is!!! The throttle response must be horrible.
All you have to do is slide the white middle gear off and slightly loosen the two motor mounting screws to slide it closer to mesh. Don't tighten them all the way yet; just to where you can move the motor to test if the mesh is closer without binding. If you have a lot of miles on yours, I would turn the white gear 180 degrees before you slide it back on the shaft. This way you will have new teeth meshing with the motor. About only half of the teeth are used on the gear for normal operation. Tighten the motor back down and slide the gear back on the shaft. Make sure there is no friction or binding and the white gear slides on easy (See pictures below). You maybe have to turn the gear a little for it to fall into place. You may have to do this process 3 or 4 times till you feel you have it just right.
Once you have everything setup, blow everything out with a can of air or air compressor. Clean the motor connections with isopropyl alcohol if you accidently touched them. Use blue locktite on the screw threads if you want. Just tighten them back to how tight they were to come off. I believe the Torx bits I used were T15 and T20. The throttle body bolts to the intake use 8-Nm with a 1/4" torque wrench or just snug them up hand tight, about how tight they were when you took them off.
The throttle is at least 50% better now after I changed the mesh. I still pan on getting the CAI and tune one of these days also.
Movement after adjustment:
Apart:
Motor and middle gear removed:
Sloppy Mesh:
Tighter Mesh: