Not long ago we bought a new (to us) vehicle to replace an aged commuter. We decided on a lower mileage 2003 Honda Pilot. Not long after I was coming back to work and once I put the car in park noticed that the idle was surging. It would rise and then lower over and over. I was less then thrilled, but I turned to my trusty friend the internet to a site I had recently joined – Piloteers.org. I went about searching for what might be the problem, and wouldn’t you know it there was a post from some time ago talking about it.

I made a quick request of exactly how to do it and got a good response, enough so that I performed the maintenance and got it all squared away. The steps are easy, and I think even for a mechanical novice. You’ll need a few tools and spray, but I think most people will have the tools already, the Throttle Body cleaner they may need to go get.

As a warning, on my way home I tried to baby it – but was treated to the engine light coming on (not the Maintenance Required light) and the VTM-4 light, which really freaked me out. The VTM-4 light went off after a restart, but the engine didn’t. As I read in the manual (HA! yeah some guys do read manuals) it said it was normal to come on when there was an emissions issue and should turn off after 3 restarts once the problem is fixed.

Tools,

1. Pliers (any kind will do, I only had channel locks at the time and they worked just fine.)
2. 10mm socket/wrench (you might want an extension too)
3. Throttle Body cleaner spray (like $3 at Checker)
4. Flat Head screwdriver (optional, but I needed it to help get the intake pipe back on the TB)

Steps,

1. Take the plastic engine cover off, there will be 4 10mm bolts – one at each corner.
2. Next, you’ll want to loosen the ring clamp. On mine it was another 10mm screw that was used (no screw driver insert either). This is the left arrow.

3. 

   Honda Pilot - Throttle Body & Intake

4. There’s a stiff tube connecting to the intake pipe (right arrow) you’ll want to take off, use the pliers to pinch the clamp together then work it off.
5. Now pull the intake pipe (black) off the TB (silver) and try to get it out of the way, I ended up pushing it towards the front of the car.
6. Inside the TB there is a small rounded rectangle hole on the bottom of the throat (arrow) – this is your target! Spray some TB cleaner down there. I did this about 3 times, and I kind of did it all over too. I sprayed, then let it evaporate, then sprayed again.

7. 

   Honda Pilot - Throttle Body

8. Now on mine you can see two dots there on the butterfly, this is what led me to spraying so much in there, after the first spray those started to melt away and I didn’t want any residue in there so I kept doing until it was gone.

As a side note, that hole your spraying into leads to the Idle Air Control Valve – this is your problem from what I’ve read, it gets a little sticky. The part itself is over $100 dollars, but it seems like sometimes it just needs to be cleaned.

As I said before the engine light is suppose to turn off after 3 restarts – well it did, sort of. On the third restart it didn’t turn off until  had driven a little while. Which had me a little nervous and upset. So all in all, this is a pretty simple fix, didn’t take me more than 20 minutes to do and I didn’t even get that dirty (my hands were dirty, but I didn’t even change out of my nice shirt…lol).

I hope this helps someone as much as someone else helped me (pass it on)…