How to clean clogged EGR cooler?

A lot of people use oxyclean, royal purple, carb cleaner, brake cleaner, and let it soak and change every 4 or so hours.
I used gunk and oven cleaner, as did others, on mine and it worked great.
Some have used a piano wire to poke through it to clean it out. Just do so carefully.
If it's fully clogged, it will take time and patience.
You might be able to check a junk yard for one that's not so clogged so you can clean it up easier and fast
so you can get it inspected. Then you won't have to rush to get it done.

Maybe a place that has a glass beader to clean it out.

 

Pressure washer will help out .

How much oil is your Prius consuming?

Good luck and keep us posted .

 

I also tried a pressure washer that someone said they used. It helped some.
Soaking seems to be the thing that needs to be done to soften up the hardened oil.
I sprayed oven cleaner in it and covered the hole until it came out the other end, 4 or 5 times.
Let it soak for 30 minutes or so then used the pressure washer.
Make sure you wear some sort of eye protection. I didn't have carb cleaner but brake cleaner helped also.

 

Maybe, maybe not.

You’ll probably have to perform some form of physical act to get the fluids flowing through .

Pressure washer or wire have been tools used in the past and have proven successful .

Good luck .

 

have you checked the tutorial from nutz & boltz?
How to Clean EGR Cooler 2009-2015 Toyota Prius (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015) - Tutoriel de réparation iFixit

 

Just a basic question for a beginner: is it possible to clean the EGR cooler /EGR valve without removing any parts?
Thanks. Any tutorial you would recommend.

 

The egr cooler is a radiator style device and has many small passages.

To thoroughly clean it, removing the cooler is required.

The egr valve you can actuate by removing the black cap (use and impact screwdriver as there are dissimilar materials) and push in the plunger. While this will not clean it, it will free up the valve.

I cleaned our 2010’s egr circuit at 120 and 173 k miles and glad I did as the carbon deposits were getting bad.

The @NutzAboutBolts videos are a great source for the job. We inspired them to make the videos.

Good luck and keep us posted .

 

200K miles is a lot, hopefully you can still flow things through. What worked for me, albeit with a lot less miles (around 75K km's):

1. First tried CRC Brakleen, also running a thin copper wire through. This was somewhat effective.

2. Then mixed up a solution, using the hottest tap water I could muster, and added powdered Oxi-Clean beyond saturated. Corked the south end, swirled up and poured in the solution.

3. Let it sit, for maybe an hour, occasionally running the copper wire through. It will bubble up, more and first, then subsiding:



The poured out solution:



Getting better:



4. Pour it out, rinse thoroughly with hot tap water, and repeat, five or six time did it for me:



With 200K miles your case will be tougher. There's a couple of similar but maybe stronger products: Purple Power, or maybe Easy-Off Oven Cleaner. You're trying to clean "baked on" carbon, somewhat similar to oven deposits, so something strongly basic is the common denominator of all these.

Note though, don't use OxiClean or similar with the valve: it has an aluminum body, will react I think. Might be fine, but will really be dulled, and BrakClean will likely be enough.

 

I soaked my EGR cooler in oxyclean and water for 6 days. Since I was waiting on parts from Toyota it wasn’t an issue. After 6 days I was still getting greasy junk out of it. One hour soaking in Dawn and water and it was clean as a whistle.

 

Dawn soap seems like a good idea. It cleans oil off of birds!
Lowe's is where I bought a kit for my pressure washer. Usually it's the "o" rings that fail. But the cheap plastic
handle couldn't handle the push from the nozzle and it just bent which caused it to leak.
I think it was only $30.

 

I plan on doing ours every 50 k miles or so.

Basically on te same rotation as the engine coolant. Keep the egr circuit fresh along with the coolant and it should last a good bit.

Good luck and keep us posted .

 

I'm curious how clogged it was the first time around (at 120,000 miles) compared to the second (with an additional 50,000 miles).

I'm approaching 90,000 miles on mine, car runs perfectly. I'm wondering when I will "have to" do it vs when I "should".

 

At 120 k miles it was noticeable with deposits, but not completely clogged .

At 173 k miles, a similar condition was found. Our 2010 does consume a quart of oil every 5k miles or so, so that extra carbon going through the system might contribute to that.

Having done this job about a half a dozen times now, while a bit fiddly, it’s manageable as a diy and definitely keeps the system in good sorts .

About to do another one (not ours) in a month or so for another members daughter. Another chance to refine the time required .

 

Mine is at the shop now -- 212k. Intake is off as well -- look nasty. All plugged up except for a portion of #2. It's a dumb design. I did not stay around for the cooler/ ERG separation to check that out ... they are going to soak over weekend. Pulled a plug (done at 152k) and it looked good ... not going to replace again. I have a new OE EGR to install