Best method for EGR cleaning?

Peoria_TDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Location
Illinois
TDI
2005 Passat TDI
I will be cleaning my EGR soon, and plan on using carb cleaner and a tooth brush. If anyone has a better method, I would appreciate your suggestions.
 

Smokerr

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Sep 3, 2005
Location
Alaska
TDI
Passat Wagon GL,2005,Silver
I plan on wasting my time when I get a nice warm weekend as well.
 

Peoria_TDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Location
Illinois
TDI
2005 Passat TDI
Smokerr said:
I plan on wasting my time when I get a nice warm weekend as well.
Me too. I don't understand why cleaning/removing something that adversely affects mpg and performance is a waste of time.
 

TDI Believer

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Sep 20, 1999
Location
Charles Town,WV
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2012 Touareg TDI
I've got 73K on my car. Never cleaned the EGR. Car consistently gets 41-43 mpg on my 45 mile morning commute. Car has not suffered any performance degradation (other than losing RCII when the ECU was changed). Now explain to me why I would want to remove my EGR valve?

The EGR valve is dumping exhaust into your intake manifold...and you want to make sure it can dump in as much as possible?

These things don't need to be cleaned. If it will make you all feel better with some placebo effect...go for it. Certainly there's something more useful you could do for your car.

Has your mpg dropped? Is there some compelling reason to believe you need to do this to your car...other than the fact that others have posted pics of ugly, sooty EGR valves?

Did you know that one person here left some solvent on his EGR valve after cleaning it and the resulting backfire from the vapors in his manifold blew a turbo seal?

Don't get me wrong...I'm all for preventive maintenance. The EGR valve doesn't require it.
 
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TDI Believer

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Charles Town,WV
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2012 Touareg TDI
jrock said:
TDI Believer,

Did you look at how restricted my EGR was?

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=172724
Yep...another pic of a dirty EGR valve. Now that you've made it all spiffy, it can dump more soot into your intake manifold much more efficiently.

You'll probably enjoy cleaning that too.

Now...someone explain to me the benefits of "unrestricting" a valve that dumps soot into your intake manifold...
 
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TDI Believer

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Location
Charles Town,WV
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2012 Touareg TDI
bigEZ said:
well, i didn't think of it that way. i was getting ready to clean mine in a couple of weeks, but now i might reconsider.

believer, the egr delete that jeff does with his programing, does it affect this area, the egr valve? if so, then you're right, why would you clean the valve?
If you can get a chip tuner to do an EGR delete (essentially flattening the EGR map), the EGR valve will never open. That's probably the best thing you could do for your engine.
 

bigEZ

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2005
Location
out there
TDI
2013 Jetta Sportwagen; 2006 New Beetle
is it something that if it became totally clogged and provided no flow at all, it would throw a cel? obviously, all the air needed is coming from the intake; i'm just wondering if a physical disruption in the "circuit" would eventually cause some problems (cel, reduced mpg's, etc. etc.)?
 

jrock

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Joined
May 3, 2004
Location
Dallas, TX
TDI
Jetta, 2001, Blue, Passat, 2012 Silver
Well then why change your air filter if air restriction is not an issue.
 

Peoria_TDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Location
Illinois
TDI
2005 Passat TDI
TDI Believer said:
I've got 73K on my car. Never cleaned the EGR. Car consistently gets 41-43 mpg on my 45 mile morning commute. Car has not suffered any performance degradation (other than losing RCII when the ECU was changed). Now explain to me why I would want to remove my EGR valve?

The EGR valve is dumping exhaust into your intake manifold...and you want to make sure it can dump in as much as possible?

These things don't need to be cleaned. If it will make you all feel better with some placebo effect...go for it. Certainly there's something more useful you could do for your car.

Has your mpg dropped? Is there some compelling reason to believe you need to do this to your car...other than the fact that others have posted pics of ugly, sooty EGR valves?

Did you know that one person here left some solvent on his EGR valve after cleaning it and the resulting backfire from the vapors in his manifold blew a turbo seal?

Don't get me wrong...I'm all for preventive maintenance. The EGR valve doesn't require it.
Believer,
Some of the many reasons that I enjoy the TDIclub and participating in this forum are the comeraderie, the sharing of different experiences/opinions/viewpoints, and the sometimes spirited debates. Your statement of EGR cleaning being a "waste of time" is your opinion, and not based on fact.

I understand where you are coming from, and respect your decision to not waste your time. It is your time, and your Passat. I am not an engineer or mechanic. I am certainly not an expert on this issue, but I am familiar with the function of an EGR valve. Has it ever occurred to you that the EGR valve could become stuck OPEN as the result of built up residue and deposits? An EGR stuck in the open position would not be conducive to keeping the intake clean. I think we all know what happens when the intake becomes clogged.

Based on your reasoning and logic, "These things don't need to be cleaned", why change your air filter, fuel filter, oil filter, or oil? Why, because if you don't, they will become clogged. My .02...Hopefully someone with more expertise on this issue will chime in.
 
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TDI Believer

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Charles Town,WV
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2012 Touareg TDI
Peoria_TDI said:
Based on your reasoning and logic, "These things don't need to be cleaned", why change your air filter, fuel filter, oil filter, or oil? Why, because if you don't, they will become clogged. My .02...Hopefully someone with more expertise on this issue will chime in.
You're misunderstanding my logic then. I change my air, fuel, and oil filters because I want unobstructed flow of clean air, fuel, and oil in my engine. I'd rather obstruct the flow of exhaust and soot into my intake. If I could totally block the EGR without throwing a CEL, I'd do it.
 

jrock

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Joined
May 3, 2004
Location
Dallas, TX
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Jetta, 2001, Blue, Passat, 2012 Silver
TDI Believer,

I’m not sure you understand how the intake system works. The ERG itself is right in the path of the air intake. Before I cleaned the EGR the air had to flow around the obstruction. If the obstruction were to grow from 75% blockage to 100% blockage that would mean no air would be able to enter into the engine.
 

TDI Believer

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Location
Charles Town,WV
TDI
2012 Touareg TDI
I've looked at mine. Nothing is blocking the flow of air.

Go ahead and pull yours apart and clean it. I don't care.
 

david_594

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Feb 28, 2004
Location
Cheshire, CT
TDI
2000 Jetta GLS Silver
Peoria, good luck and take some pictures for us if you have a chance so we can see how bloced yours was.
 

Peoria_TDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Location
Illinois
TDI
2005 Passat TDI
TDI Believer said:
I've looked at mine. Nothing is blocking the flow of air.

Go ahead and pull yours apart and clean it. I don't care.
Relax. I think you are taking this all a little too seriously. I think we can agree to disagree without getting personal :) .
 

TDI Believer

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Location
Charles Town,WV
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2012 Touareg TDI
Nothing personal intended. And I don't take most things very seriously.

What I have seen over the years here is that someone will get overly alarmed over something (like an EGR valve that is supposed to look dirty) and whip others into a frenzy as though the sky was falling. Then you get a whole group of otherwise sane people jumping over the cliff like lemmings. I've seen this with removing snow screens (first it was a good idea, now people think it's a bad idea), removing the MAF screen (definately a bad idea), using oiled air filters (killed lots of MAFs), removing mufflers, venting crankcase vapors to atmosphere with elephant hoses (only to have them freeze up), wrapping the downpipe with insulating tape, yada, yada...
 

eb2143

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Joined
Dec 26, 2005
Location
Rhode Island
TDI
None
Sometimes a restriction can be difficult to see when you peer up the EGR because the blockage is usually concentrated on the far side and things are so black there its hard to get any light without it being swallowed up.

With ULSD I don't think these will be necessary any more. The car was designed I believe for no clogging with 50ppm, we have 15.
 

MalcolmBurke

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2006
Location
Garrison
TDI
People pay good money to have the EGR go away. It does that by itself when it clogs up and it's free. Clean the manifold makes good sense.
 

DnA Diesel

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Joined
Aug 18, 2000
Location
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
TDI
no more...
There is nothing wrong with cleaning your EGR valve. I picked up 3-4 mpg by doing so. VAG-COM'd the EGR and 100,000km later, it almost looks like the day after I cleaned it.

 

TDI Believer

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Sep 20, 1999
Location
Charles Town,WV
TDI
2012 Touareg TDI
That's not the type of EGR valve we have on our PD motors. Cleaning the type you've just shown would be beneficial since the soot blocks the flow of intake air. That's not the case with a PD motor.

eb2143: I've had a VERY good look at my EGR valve and intake.
 

01TDIMKIV

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 9, 2006
Location
Alexandria, VA
TDI
2001 Jetta
I had my 01 Jetta 100k miles looked at today. The problem I am having is about a quart of oil being consumed every 1k miles. He suggested the EGR, intake, and intercooler be cleaned. I am new to this whole world, so could some one please explain to me how a dirty intake system can equate to oil consumption?? thanks in advance!

Chris
 

keywestbob

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2004
Location
Plainfield, IL
TDI
'11 Golf TDi, bye-bye loyal Jetta Wagon, '04
I cleaned my EGR on my Jetta at 70,000 miles, I installed a Provent at 5k miles and the car has always been driven following DBW instructions. My EGR had a decent build up but was not nearly as bad as some pic's I've seen here. All I can suggest is 1)Be real careful not to drop any carbon chunks into the manifold and 2) Stop at a store which sells firearms and pick up a bottle of Hoppes bore cleaner, it works wonders on carbon. I also used a shop vac (carefully) to pull any loose particles out of the intake before I put the cleaned EGR back in. I did not attempt to clean the manifold, it looked relatively clean when i looked in with a flash light.

I cant stress enough, a chunk of carbon can lock up the motor :eek:.
 
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