New Video: Toyota EGR Diagnosis Tips and Repair Tips

Nutzandbolts video is more deep in detail

 

At the same time, interesting to see a Toyota dealership mechanic's take on it.

 

The upgrade on the IM is EGR passages go to 1>2>4, vs 1<4, AFAIK. Simply cleaning the old one is quite easy too. I’d be more inclined to change the valve and cooler, especially if it’s high miles and REALLY socked in with carbon.

 

Its interesting the Toyota mechanic does not see the relationship between a hg problem and a sticking open egr other than one being mistaken for the other. He seems to believe the biggest egr issue is the valve sticking and not the cooler buildup. He replaces rather than cleans the egr valve, intake manifold and emphasizes loading the egr software update.

 

I installed updated intake manifold, new EGR cooler, new EGR valve, new EGR pipe, new water pump and oil catch can in March 2020 at 155K. COVID 19 cut back my driving a lot, have only driven about 10K since then. I wanted to have a baseline on all the EGR issues. Car runs super smooth on Costco gas and Techron fuel injector cleaner every 3 months. Hopefully dodged the EGR bullet, plan to check the EGR stuff at 50K mark.

 

“This is the exhaust; it’s never going to be clean”, “as soon as the customer drives it, it’s right back as it was”, and “the intake’s very difficult to clean”. I’m maybe paraphrasing a little, but anyway:

no, no, and no.

 

I can imagine the 'tournament' intake design being tougher to clean out than the old straight one.

 

FWIW you can verify that the intake manifold's EGR ports are equal-ish by putting a water hose where the EGR pipe would feed in. Use a spirit level to keep the manifold flat and you should see equal flow out each of the four ports, which is easy to judge by how far each stream falls. Doing that before cleaning is also revealing.

Yeah it's not a lab-grade experiment, but it can put your mind at ease over whether the internals are cleaned fairly.

 

I'm a big fan of not-quite-lab-grade experiments.

 

You should have been there when I took a hacksaw to my first-iteration 2010 intake manifold.

For the record that plastic is tough as hell. (Personally I would no longer hesitate to clean the EGR passages with a brass bore brush if nylon didn't do the trick.) I never did get to see the innards before my 1-year-on-the-shelf rule kicked in and I binned it. Kinda regret that I never tested it with a torch.

 

One fat and one skinny bottle brush, a few rags and some brake cleaner: it’s clean.

 

Why did you replace the egr pipe? They are easy to clean and don't wear out.

 

there was some stubborn crusty stuff in the pipe so I added one to an Amayama order I was preparing, I think it was $27 and the shipping charge stayed the same. So entire EGR system new and pristine.

 

So you saved the cooler and pipe to clean for next time?