iacv quick fix?

[srz]

greetings. the code says iacv failing. idle very low. 96 subaru outback. 315k miles and still rambling along. iacv failure has added a bit of rumbling, as well. question, please. i watched a video from wisconsin. the fellow revved the engine to 2k rpm, then removed a hose and poured in a bottle of sea foam slowly. lots of smoke. ten minutes later the engine seemed to be running very well.

 

can anyone else recommend this method? it seems a lot easier than manually taking things apart and a replacement for my legacy at autozone seems to be about $400! thanks for any help with the cleaning of iacv question and best wishes.

[Brighton96]

Sea foam is awesome stuff so I trust it but have never used it in that way, the closest method I've used it for is pouring it into a vacuum line with the car running to de-carbon the intake manifold/valves. It's also pretty easy to remove and clean the IACV. 2 10mm bolts, 2 coolant lines and the vacuum line, also have a new gasket ready to go for install. There's a good chance the old one won't be usable again.

[doublechaz]

This procedure is in the FSM. They call out ACDelco Upper Engine and Fuel Injector Cleaner. I have the bottle of stuff, but I have not performed the procedure. I have not used SeaFoam either. I don't know the contents of either product.

[srz]

thank you very much, doublechaz and brighton96, for your advice.

[Leggyobw97]

Do yourself a big favor and remove your O2 sensors before doing a seafoam treatment, unless you want to replace those too.

[Brighton96]

Do yourself a big favor and remove your O2 sensors before doing a seafoam treatment, unless you want to replace those too.

 

 

I've actually never heard of doing that but makes sense on paper. I've done that treatment about a hundred times and haven't had one die on me, maybe luck, I dunno.

[doublechaz]

Maybe it's different for narrow band vs wide band. I'll be sure to take out my wide band and pop in one of my working pull narrows if/when I do this. Just to be sure...

[Leggyobw97]

I've actually never heard of doing that but makes sense on paper. I've done that treatment about a hundred times and haven't had one die on me, maybe luck, I dunno.

 

Yeah I had to replace one the first time I did seafoam on my 97 OBW, due to carbon build-up on the sensor. Maybe my engine was dirtier than yours and sent more soot out the tailpipe.

 

Either way, removing the sensors definitely removes the risk of fouling them up during the treatment. Heard a lot of people call seafoam "opening up a can of worms" and that's one reason why.