Egr Replacement

[Shona&steve]

I recently had a problem with my 07 toyota Avensis. Black puff of smoke on excelleration and slow pick up driving from a junction. I took it to my local Toyota dealer who said it was my EGR valve that needed to be replaced and would gladly replace it for £580. Yeh right. I got a breakdown for the work £245 for the valve could have bought it at another Toyota garage for £188, £9.75 for the gasket which actually costs £2.09 3.5 hrs labour. Broken down 1hr to replace EGR (which I took out and refitted in 8 mins)would have to run Diagnostic 1hr and reprogram the ECU. After reading various forums argumentative if the ECU would even need to be programmed because it is only an electrical puse, anyway even if it did the whole lot would tak about 1hr in total. Garage said they tried to clean valve and that it didn't work aye right, never did anything of the sorts. After being given some advice from my mate who owns his own garage It was a 50/50 chance to clean it and try it. It took me 2 mins to remove the 6 12mm nuts an bolts, I cleaned down the ERG valve and housing and replaced it. Altogether 30 mins tops because I was being careful with the cleaning, and guess what?? no problems anymore. Toyota called for a follow up call and I asked why they were so exspensive, tried to baffle me by saying "ECU", "DIAGNOSTIC" and "RE-PROGRAMMING" blah blah blah. Does not get away from the fact that the mark up on the prices of the parts up to 300% on gasket alone on the unrealistic time to fit the parts, and to recode (if it is actually necessary). WON'T BE GOING TO TOYOTA AGAIN.