PO5O5 OBD II question

[ToddLC]

I have a 2001 Land Cruiser with 180,000 miles.
The OBD II system kicked out a P0505 code which is an idle control system malfunction. My question to you guys is how would you proceed with this?
Would you replace the piece at a cost of about $300 or would you just go to the trouble of cleaning to see if that will take care of things.
What is the process that you would go through to diagnose and fix?
I am trying to learn how to fix these things as I find I actually enjoy it.
Thanks in advance for your responses.
T

 

[jemsec]

Clean it first and see what happens. Sometimes problems are easily corrected with a little effort.

 

[marshotel]

As a first step, you should clean the throttle body (TB) and the mass air flow (MAF) sensor.

(Search "clean MAF" and "clean TB" using the "MUD search" function at the top of the screen).

You can do this with a bottle of solvent and a toothbrush.
(Use the toothbrush on the throttlebody only; Dont touch the airflow sensor, just blast it with the proper solvent and let it dry ).

Then borrow a code reader from the parts store and clear the code.
It will cost you nothing and it just might fix the problem.

 

[ToddLC]

Thank you gentlemen for your feedback.

It took me about 45 minutes to clean the MAF and throttle body. The error code has been cleared and the vehicle is running much better.