# Electronic Throttle Body



## Grizzly28 (Aug 6, 2015)

I understand that Chevy Made the throttle body they did for the Cruze for Economy, but is there a way to switch it out and go more traditional to gain power and acceleration? The acceleration into traffic is horrible and scary. Also getting a turbo Monitor?


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

Grizzly28 said:


> The acceleration into traffic is horrible and scary.


First, what grade of gas are you running? While the Cruze will run on regular, it will perform better with a higher octane. Especially as air temperature goes up.

Second, read Hesitation...GONE!. Replacing plugs can have a marked effect. 

Third, you might consider a tune. 

Beyond that, the money spent vs. results isn't so good. I can tell you that if you can anticipate your need, you can switch to manumatic, drop and gear and get the turbo spooled up. It will take off right well.





Grizzly28 said:


> Also getting a turbo Monitor?


You could add a gauge. Or you can by a dongle to plug into your OBDII and give you a readout. Perhaps using something like Torque Lite/Pro or ultra gauge.


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## Grizzly28 (Aug 6, 2015)

Explain the fourth one more?


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

Which one?


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## Grizzly28 (Aug 6, 2015)

Manumatic, turbo spooled, and the other thing


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

I'm assuming you have a automatic transmission. Slide the shiftier to the left. It's now in manual mode. (Some call it manu-matic because it's still an automatic transmission.)

Use the mode to shift down a gear. That forces the engine to speed up. Higher engine RPM generally results in higher turbo RPM. So when you do hit the accelerator, things are ready to jump. In automatic mode, the car tends to keep you in a high gear for economy but not so good for quick acceleration.

Depending on how hard you stomp on it, it may need to downshift anyway. So what you're doing is pre-downshifting.

When done, just push the shiftier back to the right for full automatic.


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## Grizzly28 (Aug 6, 2015)

Ok now I get what you were saying.. Thank you


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Throttle by wire is becoming practically common in all new vehicles. Sure gave Toyota a lot of headaches, gather running a wire is cheaper than using linkage.

On my 2012 2LT with a MT, noticed when I took my foot off the gas, engine was slowly down as quick out of BB warranty. Removed the air inlet, need my wife to step on the gas, can't do this at the throttle body anymore, and spayed in some choke and carb cleaner, working good again. Just a little bit of soot from returning the PCV back into the turbo input, not a good idea. Sure caused Ford a lot of grieve. 

In neutral you can rev the engine to make sure it responds quickly, 3000 rpm is enough.

I find TBW an inconvenience when working under the hood, so need an assistant for things like tracing down noises. One thing it does do is makes adding cruise practically no cost at all, just shifting the reference from the gas pedal to preset code by the cruise control buttons. But GM sure went out of their way to make adding cruise for LS owners. This is downright nasty. Everything is there except the buttons.

Kia is the same way, but was only 15 bucks for a button panel, but added another 40 bucks for a new harness with a couple of more wires on it to keep my daughters car stock.


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

Grizzly28 said:


> I understand that Chevy Made the throttle body they did for the Cruze for Economy, but is there a way to switch it out and go more traditional to gain power and acceleration?


Short answer is no. I would also add the throttle by wire over the traditional cable is not used for fuel economy purposes, but it does reduce vehicle weight and complexity of designing a cable system for every engine and body differences. I would also guess in the event of an accident you will no longer have the risk of a car's throttle sticking wide open when the cable system gets tweaked.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

spacedout said:


> Short answer is no. I would also add the throttle by wire over the traditional cable is not used for fuel economy purposes, but it does reduce vehicle weight and complexity of designing a cable system for every engine and body differences. I would also guess in the event of an accident you will no longer have the risk of a car's throttle sticking wide open when the cable system gets tweaked.


You also avoid the mess of a cable-controlled cruise control under the hood. 

Yes, you definitely have _some_ throttle lag - but honestly, it's not enough to be dangerous, especially once you're used to the car. It's mostly noticible if you quickly hit the gas pedal (as to rev it) while in park or neutral. You'll see the lag there - hardly at all when you're driving. It also has nothing to do with acceleration.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

I think TBW is mostly to allow the computer to do the controlling. They can change the throttle response though software. As well as tame the effect of turbo spool-up.


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

On a manual Cruze, you'll notice some intended lag in stop-and-go traffic - when you let off the gas abruptly, the car will ease off the fuel injectors and close the throttle plate to lessen the jerk you feel when torque is removed from the drivetrain. 

On an automatic, it's mainly just getting the computer to figure out what the **** you want it to do. There's usually a pretty dramatic lag in automatic cars before the transmission figures out what you want. If you intend on making a no to full throttle move, make sure the car is in the right gear first and pickup should be there when you jump on it.


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

jblackburn said:


> On an automatic, it's mainly just getting the computer to figure out what the **** you want it to do. There's usually a pretty dramatic lag in automatic cars before the transmission figures out what you want. If you intend on making a no to full throttle move, make sure the car is in the right gear first and pickup should be there when you jump on it.


This is true, however the cruze throttle by wire isn't the deciding factor in the transmission slowness. My previous car a 2004 cavalier automatic had an old school cable throttle system, going from no to full throttle would at times be a 3-4 second wait for the computer to figure out what you wanted. The cruze though delayed is nowhere near that laggy even with throttle by wire, about 1-2 seconds worse case. 

If you need power manual mode is much better to be in a lower gear, however I've had times where dropping it down a few gears to pass it was delayed a few seconds just like in auto mode(kinda scary, since this is not how it normally works). Since this occurred I'm now always in manual mode in the appropriate gear for passing before I attempt anything. Nothing like getting over in the other lane with your foot to the floor and nothing happening for what seems like an eternity.


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

spacedout said:


> This is true, however the cruze throttle by wire isn't the deciding factor in the transmission slowness. My previous car a 2004 cavalier automatic had an old school cable throttle system, going from no to full throttle would at times be a 3-4 second wait for the computer to figure out what you wanted. The cruze though delayed is nowhere near that laggy even with throttle by wire, about 1-2 seconds worse case.
> 
> If you need power manual mode is much better to be in a lower gear, however I've had times where dropping it down a few gears to pass it was delayed a few seconds just like in auto mode(kinda scary, since this is not how it normally works). Since this occurred I'm now always in manual mode in the appropriate gear for passing before I attempt anything. Nothing like getting over in the other lane with your foot to the floor and nothing happening for what seems like an eternity.


That's kind of what I was getting at - the transmission computer/transmission itself is usually the laziest bit. Our Toyota, as well as my dads Jeep, has a good 2-3 second lag before deciding to downshift and ramp the power on. On the other hand, stomp on my Volvos gas pedal and you instantly get a 2 gear downshift and take off like a rocket. 

It's partly programming and partly responsiveness of the auto transmission itself, I guess. The Volvo didn't shift all that smoothly, but it did so quickly.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

From the owner's manual: 


> If more power is needed for passing, and the vehicle is:
> 
> 
> Going less than 56 km/h(35 mph), push the accelerator pedal about halfway down.
> Going about 56 km/h (35 mph) or more, push the accelerator all the way down.


I haven't tried it myself, but the answer might be to romp 'em stomp 'em to tell the computer what you want.


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## Alex V. (Sep 20, 2013)

jblackburn said:


> That's kind of what I was getting at - the transmission computer/transmission itself is usually the laziest bit. Our Toyota, as well as my dads Jeep, has a good 2-3 second lag before deciding to downshift and ramp the power on. On the other hand, stomp on my Volvos gas pedal and you instantly get a 2 gear downshift and take off like a rocket.
> 
> It's partly programming and partly responsiveness of the auto transmission itself, I guess. The Volvo didn't shift all that smoothly, but it did so quickly.


The Volvo is the only European car in your roster, and I've been in enough European cars and read enough reviews on new cars to know the people across the Atlantic have quite a different idea of how a car should feel. It aggravates me that Americans seem to have given the manufacturers the idea they want as little feedback from the car as possible. But I guess that's the same mindset that tells manufacturers it'll sell to make a car (i.e., the new Impala and Malibu) that will do everything but accelerate for you.


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