Cleaning a 2006 EGR Valve

VA Jetta

Well-known member
Joined
May 29, 2006
Location
Northern VA
TDI
2006
I was talking to a gentleman the other day who has owned a diesal since 1978 and currently has a 2004 Jetta. He indicated to me that they will run forever if taken car of and one of the important things about taking care of it was the EGR valve. He said that the car will get sluggish if gunk builds up EGR. He said he takes his apart once a year to clean it out. Has anyone here had any experiance with cleaning a 2006 Jetta TDI EGR valve? If so could we post some detailes so I could maybe get this done myself. Thanks in advance.
 

andreigbs

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2004
Location
Walworth Co., Wisconsin
TDI
N/A
well i dunno about a 2006, but i've cleaned my 2004's already and it was yucky, bad, bad, dirty stuff. it took a good 30 minutes to do the whole thing right, looked brand new when i was done with it and it made a huge difference right away. the upper rpm range is much more flexible, boost is more controlled with less spiking and that stuttering at idle went away. i think that may also be in part because i tightened the bolts holding the tandem vacuum/fuel pump since a couple were loose and causing some black oily residue to build up on the side of the cyl. head.

oh yeah, my PD had about 56k miles when i did this cleaning, had bought it at 28k miles, been using ULSD since it became available, so we'll see what the EGR looks like in another 50k miles.
 

cfm56

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Location
97068
TDI
2014 Jetta TDI SportWagen
is there a how to thread on how to clean the EGR? I would be interested in doing mine on my 04 tdi jetta with 44k miles on it
 

andreigbs

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 27, 2004
Location
Walworth Co., Wisconsin
TDI
N/A
cfm56, if you search under my username for my previous posts you'll see one entitled "For PD owners shuddering or stuttering at idle", in which i more or less described my experience with the EGR.

basically it's a simple job. the EGR valve is the round aluminum thing on top-left of the engine, right under cover, facing you as you open the hood. you'll see the air intake hose coming from the pass. side headlight going into the intake; well, the EGR is the valve that the hose leads to. all you have to do is undo the 3 hex bolts holding it to the intake manifold, i think they are 5mm, then twist it back and forth as you slide it out towards you. you'll most likely have some crud built up so be careful where that junk falls. make sure you unplug the electrical connection as well. after you have the valve off the intake, scoop up and loose carbon pieces that you can get your fingers to. don't scrape anything to dislodge it because it won't do much good unless you take off the whole intake, just to avoid getting crap into the engine and bending a valve :O remove the rubber gasket at the base of the valve, wipe it with a little alcohol and it should be fine to be reused. use a good carb cleaner spray and a bristle brush to clean out all the junk and make that valve shine like new, put the o-ring gasket back on, slide the valve back into place, handtighten screws then tighten them snug, reconnect elec. connector and get cleaned up. take it for a ride after hearing it idle a bit. leave the a/c off and all other electrical loads, just listen to the idle a bit before you drive off. if your EGR was crudded up as bad as mine was, you'll definitely notice a difference in the mid- to upper-range rpms. good luck, post back with results.
 

Lightflyer1

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 13, 2005
Location
Round Rock, Texas
TDI
2015 Beetle tdi dsg
Supposedly the new cleaner fuel should reduce the problem from my reading here. Those with new cars using only ULSD or bio and driving correctly, may not see this problem at all for many many miles. Chipping and EGR reduction/removal may help as well.
 

Dalon

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2015
Location
Ohio
TDI
2006 MKV Jetta TDI 1.9L - 210k 2013 Passat TDI - 27k
I deleted my EGR and EGR cooler since it was a common place to spring a leak but mine wasn't that dirty when it came out at 175000 miles...our cars tend to stay cleaner than the older TDIs....I would still take it out though and clean it if you want to, certainly wouldn't hurt anything and I'm sure you'll reap some benefits.
 

Sockets

New member
Joined
Jun 17, 2017
Location
MICHIGAN
TDI
2006 Jetta
Would anyone recommend getting the car chipped?Also, I've had car just over a month running great with great mpg but have engine light on....blowing black smoke from exhaust up to 3rd gear....was told it's the EGR valve (had it scanned) any idea what to do first..... should I clean EGR first? Or replace?
 
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