2016 Mazda CX-9 GT
52500 Miles
Maintenance has been up to date.

Dealer is recommending throttle body cleaning. Total cost is 159+tax
Questions:
Is this cleaning really needed? Car is running fine, there is no rough idle. This car always struggled with initial pick up and that is not something new. Sounds like the dealer is trying to up-sell and I have already denied it.
I tried to find some videos on you tube about this but can not find anything about Gen2 CX-9. However, I saw some other video and it seems to be fairly doable job by myself.
Also, I am pretty sure I know where the throttle body is located, but I wonder if I remove clean it, am I running into some computer reset or any other issue after the fact?

Has anyone cleaned throttle body on similar model car? Your experience or any tips would be helpful

 

That is odd? Regular maintenance and NO DTC (Diagnostic Trouble Codes)? The intake system (filtered air only) is closed except the air cleaner and crankcase breather. Assuming that you do not have oil residue in which you likely should have a DTC the throttle body should be as pristinely clean as brand new?
What was there reason or what did they find that the recommendation was made?

 

Wear latex or similar gloves so your skin oil does not contaminate the parts. If you are going to do it I would remove it from the engine and use ONLY Throttle Body Cleaner spray. Let it completely air dry before re-installing. Don't over torque the long throttle body bolts. Clean the connector with an electrical spray cleaner only and apply dielectric grease to both sides of the connectors. Carefully wipe using a dust free cloth the intake boot to air box. Be careful of the sensor. Even dust can effect it. In fact it would be better to use low pressure air or a can of can used to clean computers around the sensor.

 

I had the same recommendation when I had my 2015 CX-5 GT in for an oil change a few years ago. They wanted $119 at the time as I recall. I also had no codes and the car was running okay. I went ahead and let them do it and I was really surprised at how much better the car ran. It seemed to have restored performance that had slowly been lost over the miles. Anyway, that was my experience with the procedure.

 

Unless they do a complete scan of the OBDII and also a diagnostic check of the induction system component's this procedure is often a money maker for service shops. In my shop unless you can first have a DTC, visually see any dust ,oil or anything other then a clean boot and Throttle body plate, and lastly run a few Scans of a couple sensors and their reading I would never recommend this to a customer!
"The placebo effect" of engine performance tuning is by suggesting that the engine should run better and you should see some improvement when some service is done. Even if in reality there was no improvement to anything mechanical or contributes to improve engine efficiency .

ASE

 

Throttle bodies do get dirty with age and start to gum up with oil from the PCV system. I would recommend a clean ever 60,000 miles.

Symptoms can be rough idle, or sticky throttle.