Hi everyone,

I've been having throttle body issues. I replaced the old one with an AC Delco 217-3108 from the Amazon "AC Delco" store. Just over a year later, my hesitation and surging issues continued and was told it was the TB by a couple mechanics at Meineke. So I ordered a Dorman and it seemed to fix the problem... for a while. The hesitation stuff started up again, so back to the Meineke I feel like I'm locked into this vicious cycle with, and they're still blaming the throttle body. They switched out the runner valve twice already chasing the issue down.

I'm a DIY'er limited by what I can do in my apartment complex, and a throttle body is definitely within my capabilities. Four bolts and a connector. No big deal... right? Am I missing something? Did I get two crap TB's in a row?

So believing ACD's are supposed to be the best, according to much debate in various forums for decades, I'm shopping for another one as opposed to paying them nearly $1000 to do it, with a supposed direct replacement that they're probably getting from Amazon as well. I find these 217-3108's for over $400 at Autozone, Summit has them for $217, and Amazon is $166 (the same one I ordered before). Who do I trust? Are the "GM Genuine" parts better? What about Duralast, which runs around $230 with a limited lifetime warrantee? O'Rielly's has the Spectra or Hitachi at closer to $300. At this point, I don't care about the price. At least O'Rielly and Autozone are brick and mortar places I can bring it back to... and maybe feel more secure in it not being a Chinese knockoff?

 

What year Monte are you working with? Usually the throttle body on modern cars is really nothing. It is a valve and sometimes holds an IAC and maybe a MAF sensor. As long as the valve moves with the throttle linkage, not much on the actual throttle body to fail there days (worst case, remove it and clean off any carbon build up).

Now the 06-07 Monte has "drive by wire". This means instead of a cable linked from the pedal to the throttle body, it has a sensor at the pedal and the computer takes that reading to then tell the solenoid on the throttle body how much to open up. I have not worked on these setups at all, but, from what I have heard about drive by wire failures (not specific to the Monte Carlo), the sensor at the pedal is usually the culprit.

 

I did replace the pedal a couple months ago thinking that might be part of the problem, and maybe it's still part of the problem. I think I'll get an original at the yard and see if that helps before jumping into another throttle body. Perhaps grab an old TB too. It's probably better than anything new.
It's an '06 with a 3.9. The sensor and the throttle connection are on the side of the body. I don't think anything is as good as an actual wire hooked up to the pedal and the throttle... and maybe the problems I'm having are just a product of the electrical connections that are inferior to an actual wire.