Egr Tinkering

[Daveyonthemove]

As most people on here have read or experienced, a common issue with most diesel engines id the EGR valve clogging up, making the car a pain to drive properly.

There are additives out there that are designed to clean them up, and some brands of fuel claim to be cleaner than others, and there are also DIY guides on nearly every forum, showing us how to remove them and clean them.

But what if you simply disconnect them? If they are not opening to allow gases inside, they can't possibly clog up?

This has been on my mind for a while, so I decided to disconnect mine and go for a drive.

Using software on my phone, and a bluetooth OBDII reader, I was able to monitor the EGR values as well as seeing how the car was responding as I drove.

Here are my findings:

1) Before I even pulled off the drive, there was 'BEEP' and the EML (Engine management light) was on.

2) A few metres down the road, I get a 'CHECK VSC' warning on the dash.

3) Soon after that I get 'CHECK ENGINE' warning on the dash, and the two warnings alternate.

I did expect the warnings, although I did think I might cover a few miles first.

I drive on through the outskirts of my town in a 30mph zone, and barely have to touch the throttle to keep speed up. All seems ok. But as I approach a NSL (National speed limit)and decide to pick up speed, I find that there is very little response to the throttle.

I check the 'Boost' reading on my phone, and find that my car has no Boost at all.

As I am about to use a busy bypass in less than a mile, i decide it would be unsafe to try and join the road with no power, so I pull over to lift the bonnet and reconnect the EGR, but take these pic's first:

After taking the pics, I turn off the ignition, reconnect the EGR and start the car again. The warnings stay on, but the car drives as well as it should do, except for a slight hesitation in 3rd at town speeds, but nothing that is dangerous.

When I got home I scanned for fault codes and found:

P0400: Exhaust Gas Recirculation Flow

P0405: Exhaust Gas Recirculation Sensor "A" Circuit Low

I cleared the codes, did a rescan and they have gone, and the warnings on the dash have gone too.

I decided to reset the ECU (Something I do quite often anyway) and the car is running fine again.

So what are the options now?

I have read on other forums about a home made gasket that has a small (9mm) hole drilled through, so this reduces the gas flow into the EGR, but still lets enough through to fool the ECU into thinking that all is well.

or...

Clean it often and use good quality fuel and a fuel treatment occasionally?

or...

Hope that someone can come up with a plug in type box that will block the signal to the EGR valve, but keep the loop open to the ECU so it behaves as if all is well?

I hope this might prove useful for anyone who was planning to disconnect the EGR without access to a fault code reader, as this could cost you money getting the codes reset.

[wastedagen]

Thanks for the info. Very informative....

[Mistermena]

Great post mate.

[Rick D4D]

Hi Dave,

I dont see the point of this as by the time you have spent all the time trying to remove this then have the risk of no warranty if the car develops a fault because of this you could just simply spend 20minutes twice a year and clean the EGR valve out.

[acetip]

Hi Dave,

I dont see the point of this as by the time you have spent all the time trying to remove this then have the risk of no warranty if the car develops a fault because of this you could just simply spend 20minutes twice a year and clean the EGR valve out.

if a waranty hss expired then there would no problem.if the warranty has not expired why cant you claim for it to be cleaned under warranty.

[TOMTOM8891]

i got the same problem showing engine light and vsc light on my sr180 3 weeks ago. the car felt like it got only 10bhp. there was no power at all. i went to my toyota dealership, they checked for the reason and found out its cause of the blockage in EGR valve. so they need to take out my engine and clean it fully which took 5 days for them to do the job. luckly my car was on warranty did it for free!!.. now my engine feels like brand new!!!! can feel more power out of it. never ever i am gonna use cheap diesels anymore!!

[Daveyonthemove]

Glad you got it sorted free of charge.

Did they say what they cleaned? 5 days is a long time to have the car off the road. I can clean my EGR in under 30 mins.

[TOMTOM8891]

Glad you got it sorted free of charge.

Did they say what they cleaned? 5 days is a long time to have the car off the road. I can clean my EGR in under 30 mins.

they said the engine need to be cleaned from inside. so they removed my engine to bits and cleaned it. because they suspect a blockage inside da values and manifold. and they also replaced my EGR.