1.6HDI EGR Solenoid

[philkerman]

Well, today my EGR packed up completely. By packed up I mean was unable to close fully and thus was choking my engine to death.

So, time to clean it up + an added bonus

So anyway, this is what the EGR looked like before cleaning.

http://philstorage.info/pictures/EGR...002_140656.jpg
http://philstorage.info/pictures/EGR...002_140718.jpg

Considering it was cleaned not all that long ago, that's pretty messy, and it was evidently quite knotted and wouldn't move freely or to it's proper extents. The solenoid itself seemed the same as before... quite tight and gritty.

For those that don't know the location see the following two pictures.

http://philstorage.info/pictures/EGR...002_140834.jpg
http://philstorage.info/pictures/EGR...002_140857.jpg

So anyway, I only had carb cleaner to hand to tidy the valve up, I personally don't fancy introducing liquids to the solenoid so I just used a toothbrush and an airline to clean the solenoid up, but this is the end result.

http://philstorage.info/pictures/EGR...002_144738.jpg
http://philstorage.info/pictures/EGR...002_144815.jpg

My first test after cleaning it up was to refit it complete and unsurprisingly it was pretty much the same.

With the engine running I unscrewed the solenoid from the valve and instantly all was well, and it sounded much nicer than it has previously when the EGR was 'Working'.

As it turns out on these if you separate them, the exhaust gasses push the valve upwards closing it fully (immediately on start-up), permanently (well, until you shut-down). It turned out the default position for the EGR Solenoid is to hold the valve open, I'm guessing until ignition on. For me however, this was not the case, on ignition, cranking and running it was held on the 'fully open' position., hence my problem.

Since the valve is self-blanking when the solenoid is separated from the valve I've left EGR solenoid connected, tie wrapped up out of the way, even though it's not functional I'm not actually getting any DTC's / Limp Mode or anything of the kind, I suspect I will with it disconnected.

With the blanking, the difference is quite huge, it sounds better (less clatter/knocking synonymous with EGR issues) and throttle response is much better, and generally pulls a lot better across the board.

It wasn't my intention at first to essentially perform an EGR-OFF/Blanking, but since it presented itself with seemingly little intervention/messing around I figured I'd run with it and see how it went. I've done a fair few mines since to give DTC's a chance to show up, and obviously EGR is inhibited when cold so before I set off allowed to engine to get to full operating temperature.

I did about 15 miles town driving, and about 20 mins at cruise on the motorway with no sign of issues, mpg on the motorway cruise compared to before was about 2mpg better, but to be fair it was too short of a distance to really say if it has improved or not. However I can't see how it wouldn't improve a little.

Anyway, I guess I'll finish by saying that isn't so much of a guide, more on my personal experience with it failing on me, however should you feel the desire to check it out and see if your results are the same go ahead at your own risk!

Oh and for those wondering if I did anything to my ECU since I did my own DPF-Off and micro re-map, the answer is no, I've not done anything to inhibit the EGR function, or remove any DTC's associated with it.

Phil

[bettyswollocks]

Did you put this back to normal mate or are you still blanked off?

[AZ307]

Hi Phil,

I can't see your pictures for some reason? The link takes me to another website called GoDaddy.com with lots of other links on it?!

[citralex]

Any chance you could repost the pics , please.