EGR Repair & Replacement

EGR Valve Cleaning
When the EGR clogs up with carbon it reduces the flow of air through the intake system causing a reduction in power and fuel efficiency making an EGR removal or replacement a great money saving exercise. EGR removal or replacement can also prevent damage to your engine by preventing deposit pieces of carbon flowing back into the intake.

What is an EGR valve and what does it do?
EGR stands for Exhaust Gas Recirculation. As the name already implies, the EGR valve recirculates the exhaust gasses from your car, making it more environmentally friendly, as it lowers the levels of pollution that are caused by the car.
Dirty exhaust gasses are simply sent back to the combustion chamber to be reused.
Many car owners experience symptoms of a faulty EGR valve from time to time, which causes troubles while driving and increases pollution levels. As diesel cars usually produce more soot which can clog up the system, the EGR valve can get clogged up, which will cause it to not function fully anymore.
What are the symptoms of a faulty EGR valve?
When the EGR valve gets sooty as a result of recirculating the exhaust gasses, it may become faulty. This causes problems during driving and increases the air pollution levels.
Here are a few examples of the way it affects the driving:
- Loss of traction – weary, heavy or slow start
- Vibrations
- Uneven idling
- Black smoke from the exhaust
It’s easy to detect the problem, if you can see the warning symbol for the motor being lit on your dashboard, which is usually a sign of a faulty EGR valve.
You can try to do a test and see if you can clean the EGR yourself.
This is done by revving up to full gas and trying to blow out the soot from the valve itself. This process needs so much oxygen that the gasses won’t be recirculated.
If the problems are still there, you should have your EGR valve checked.
Is EGR valve cleaning an option when it needs fixing?
As stated, you can try to “clean” the valve by giving full gas. But usually, EGR valve cleaning has to be done at the garage.
Make sure you ask your mechanic to check if it’s enough to simply clean the valve, or if you need to replace it. If cleaning is enough, that will save you a lot of money, as a new EGR valve is expensive.
Often, however, you will find that this is not enough, and a replacement has to be done.