Car is a 2004 PT Cruiser GT Turbo, 177k miles. I did a smoke test today to look for vacuum leaks and noticed quite a bit of leakage around the throttle shaft. There is also a little play in it, not a lot though.
Is this something I should take care of? Or does the idle air valve compensate for it to some degree?

I'm asking because on my old slant six, a worn shaft really messed up getting it to run right.

Thanks.

The turbo PT is a port injected motor. I would think an air leak at the throttle plate could cause a slight hesitation at times, or maybe a variation in idle speed, but it would not have the major problems the old carb fed slant 6 experienced from a throttle shaft bushing leak. The turbo computer measures the o2 levels in the exhaust, and also measures the air flow through the intake system and monitors & adjusts the fuel mixture at the injectors in the intake ports continuously. If the computer doesn't like the numbers it sees, it will set a code, light the check engine light, or shut down and go into limp in mode. The first two could happen pretty fast. the last one usually takes a while.

At the mileage on your car, I would expect issues with the TPS switch or vacuum hoses causing a problem before the throttle body, but if you have known problems with the throttle body, I'd probably replace it. Gene

Gene:

Thanks for the response. That's what I was thinking regarding the computer compensating for the leak. I'm chasing a weird idle issue and I think I'm down to the idle air valve being the problem.
I did some research today on the SRT4 forums and it looks like a boost leak is pretty common on the throttle shaft. So I think I'm going to call it good. I have already replaced the throttle sensor.

-Dave