I recently got a 1996 Chevy Suburban. It's in pretty good condition and runs okay, except for when the A/C is on full blast it sometimes stalls when it's sitting or stopped at a light. I googled it and the forums say that the issue is probably with a "dirty throttle body".

Is there a cheap, easy way to clean this myself?

SEAFOAM worked great to clean out my injectors! A little in the gas tank, a little in the oil, rev it up and watch it smoke!!! This is one of the things in a bottle that REALLY WORKS!!!!

Purchase a can of carburetor cleaner...remove the air cleaner and spray the entire can of cleaner down the intake.

Spraying or dumping something in your tank like the above probably isn't going to do much of anything in most cases. (Even the BG 44k that Pat shills.) You can try it but don't get your hopes up. Rather than Carb cleaner what you want to look for is throttle body cleaner. It's made not to eat plastic and the anti-stick coatings that may be in some like carb cleaner with acetone in it will.

I don't know GM that well but most likely what you need to do is to get the idle speed up slightly. That used to be easy since most had a simple screw that you could turn but on a 96 you're getting into the range where there may not be one. At least that you can get to easily. There also likely is a mechanical idle control valve which can get gummed up over time and then not properly work. You can try replacing or cleaning that with the same cleaner. It's usually a little cylindrical looking thing which will connect near the throttle body somewhere. Also you'll have a switch or sensor which controls kicking the idle speed up a little when the AC is on. If yours doesn't bump up when you turn on the AC then that you may need to replace that. One way or another getting the idle speed up some probably will do it. Search for idle speed for your truck and you should find some info.

A little known fact. Spitting in your gas tank will ckean the injectors and carburetor.


Saliva contains HG4 molecules that combine with hydrocarbons in gasoline to make a cleaner called RGHIDL3.

Try it!

seafoam helps. You should also carefully clean your MAF using MAF cleaner.