Auto tranny: zfHPxx solenoids and valve body. Has anyone ever....?

[gmak]

I know that many people have done the solenoids on their zf tranny. I'm doing it right now, but have hit a pause while I awaity the arrival of the missing foam strip. What I am interested in, is, if anyone has used brake cleaner, or circuit cleaner to spray into the solenoid holes, followed by compressed air to "clear out" the little channels etc.?

I'm contemplating doing this, but I don't want to cause any damage and have to get the valve body rebuilt - too many tiny finicky parts inside that need to be moved out and replaced in the process.

[eaton18spd]

I don't have any experience with this but I probably would not do it. Just pull the old ones out and put the new ones in. If you are worried about dirt and debris in the valve body, it would probably be best to take it apart to clean it.

[Alex0607]

I had mine done and from my limited understanding of the valve body it's basically made out of aluminium in two parts. There is flat piece of separator gasket which you can buy and suppose to replace when you service the valve body. My mechanic used kerosene to clean the valve body so I don't see why you can't use contact cleaner or break cleaner to clean the part.

Incidentally I was using the same cleaners plus compressed air to clean the intake and exhaust vanos solenoids today and the car rough idle has gone.

Just to add that I had my valve body serviced and solenoid valves replaced a couple of years back but the last I took a fault code reader to check, it was throwing a fault code on solenoid no.3. So I guess I will have to replace that solenoid at some point. But car is still performing as usual.