Cleaning Egr Valve

[wilkoh]

Just given the egr valve on my 2008 Avensis 2.0 a good cleaning. Ideally, I would have liked to operate the valve manually but wasn't sure whether I should remove the solenoid or try to push the valve open by levering the exposed shaft in the end chamber. I'd be grateful for any advice,

[Phil24RN]

Operating it manually will do the trick mate. No need to remove solenoid. I clean with screwdriver and a little fluid to give a final rinse out, otherwise it just gets rediculously messy. Other than that should be no problem with the actual valve due to the age.

hope this helps,

Regards Phil

[Graham07]

Hi wilkoh,

Sorry to use your expertise but can you tell me where the egr is please? My car is a late 2007 model and it isn't where the youtube videos show it ( to be fair they do refer to a 2003 car ).

I've tried filling the fuel filter with diesel fuel system cleaner then flogging in on the M4 which the dealer told me to do but I'd really like to clean it properly.

Thanks,

Graham

[jules8343]

Graham,

There are some photos showing the EGR location in a post I did about cleaning it on a 2007 Avensis

[Graham07]

Jules,

Many thanks. I see now why the dealer uses the cleaner in the fuel filter trick but I'll get the gaskets and do the job properly.

Graham

[Phil24RN]

Unless the gaskets are out of shape or uneven you dont have to replace them. EGR valve job is to reduce emissions!

[wilkoh]

Operating it manually will do the trick mate. No need to remove solenoid. I clean with screwdriver and a little fluid to give a final rinse out, otherwise it just gets rediculously messy. Other than that should be no problem with the actual valve due to the age.

hope this helps,

Regards Phil

Thanks Phil, much appreciated.

Regards Keith

[wilkoh]

Hi wilkoh,

Sorry to use your expertise but can you tell me where the egr is please? My car is a late 2007 model and it isn't where the youtube videos show it ( to be fair they do refer to a 2003 car ).

I've tried filling the fuel filter with diesel fuel system cleaner then flogging in on the M4 which the dealer told me to do but I'd really like to clean it properly.

Thanks,

Graham

Hello Graham. The egr on my '08 couldn't be any easier to get at, it's at the very top between the injectors and the radiator after removing the engine cover.

[Graham07]

Thanks Wilkoh,

I found it from Jules8343's video. I've just retired. I had company cars for the last 25 years so the last cars I worked on were things like Cortinas. I'd no idea what an egr looked like. Anyway, the cleaner in the filter trick only worked for two days so I'm about to get the spanners out.

Thanks again,

Graham

[Graham07]

At the risk of extending this thread I think it's worth recounting what I found. My car has done 117,000 mainly at 70mph in 6th cog on motorways; no issues at all. I used it domestically from January and recently the TRC, VSC and management lights came on; diagnosis was the egr. When I removed mine it was very badly crudded up and the ports into the manifold were pretty well completely blocked. I used some stiff copper wire from mains cable to clean out the ports and cleaned the valve with Redex diesel fuel system cleaner. I wish I had used some disposable latex gloves !!

If you use one of these engines for normal domestic motoring I think it would be worth cleaning this valve on a regular basis. One year, two years ? I don't know for sure but I'm going to make it an annual job to start with. It might well have cost me a lot of mpg before the lights came on.

[Jas16]

depending on your annual mileage, once a year should be fine, I do about 11k roughly, and just started getting into an annual habit, not the worst job.

[JonD4D2008]

Want to thank you all just cleaned my EGR on my toyota avensis d4d 2008.

It was really blocked,I followed instructions on here and managed to do the whole thing in about an hour which is brilliant for me as i am not really mechanically minded so now i feel epic...

Can you tell me though after the clean am i able to knock the warning lights off myself (TRC VSC + ENGINE MANAGEMENT)

or is this a garage thing or still a fault any advice will be really welcomed many thanks happy amateur mechanic...