EGR Cleaning: What did I get myself into?

Too much time on your hands.....

 

@mjoo did a pre and post flow test, IIRC. Something along the lines of pouring water in the top, and seeing what volume made it through, in a measured time interval. Again IIRC, he got something like a fourfold increase in water volume through, post clean up.

 

Spare hands staying with me (my old man from Pa who needs to stay busy).

Figured I would take advantage .

 

I pressed a garden hose on one end and turned on the faucet all the way. The dirty cooler let out only a trickle. After cleaning it out the flow improved at least 3x from my experience. It was obvious to me and I had only 73k miles at the time.

Pixel XL ?

 

If you use Oxiclean and hot water it will release a "volcano" of black soot and you'll get it sparkling clean.

Pixel XL ?

 

After taking his advice:




The drain water:



Shiny shiny:

 

Yeah I did, settled on a coax cable (cable tv style) with the insulation stripped off, but: it was pretty much surplus to requirements, the oxy did the work I think. That said, the car only had 72K kms at the time. That said, after a first round with braklean, it was still quite grungy: it was the oxi really reacted with, floated the carbon off.

 

Thank You soo much! .....to all who responded to this..

 

OxiClean's efficacy is due to it being a midly caustic cleaner I think. You might try something like Easy-Off Oven cleaner and get similar results. A caustic cleaner is good for the internals of the EGR cooler, which is apparently all stainless steel.

I would though, avoid using it on any aluminum pieces, the valve for example, which is mostly aluminum. I think with aluminum it will quickly "dull" the finish. I'm not sure if this is detrimental in any way, but doesn't look good. Similar to the results of putting aluminum sauce pans in the automated dishwasher.

Also, it's noted back a few pages, but: the OxiClean solution with the EGR cooler is not going to work instantly. It takes about 5 or 6 hour long soaks, with as concentrated as solution as possible, hot tap water, and thorough hot tap water rinses. You can kinda tell when it's due to rinse out, when the bubbling subsides.

 

I visited today at the local dealer to get my summer tires tpms identification codes read to me(now i have codes for both winter and summer tires, yay!) and had a talk with very nice service guy.

We talked about Gen3 startup knockings, EGR system and OCC.
He pointed out one important thing when i asked about does they clean customers EGR coolers or replace them with new one:
He said that one major reason to replace it with new one for customer car is that when EGR cooler is cleaned, specially if its cleaned with wire and so on, how to know if you accidently damaged EGR cooler and if is starts to leak. He said that he had cleaned EGR system from his own Prius, but yeah i understand as an service tech his point.

Wanted to share this talk, just to point out that when people clean their own EGR coolers, be gentle with the cooler. Some kind a cooling line pressure test before installing may give some better sleep for me if i ever have to clean my egr

 

What a project this weekend I did clean intake manifold and EGR cooler. Also changed spark plugs and install new PCV valve and oil catch can.
On the cooler i did try a lot stuff but best was Easy-Off Oven cleaner soak with power washer rinse and as final step I did a Oxi soak and result was like brand new cooler.
All this could be done in like 1 day but with my luck I got some complication removing and then reinstalling the EGR cooler because one of the bolt got stuck inside the engine.

 

Good to know. It seems like caustic cleaners are the way to go with the (stainless steel) cooler.

 

I think if you are in hurry and cant soak overnight
oven cleaner is the way to go.
I started with like 60% clogged cooler so I didn't used any wire but the first day I didn't had oven cleaner or oxi because all stores was closed.
So I tried all sorts of cleaners in hand but it was not working well.
Next day with oven cleaner it was done in under 1h soaked for couple minutes then rinsed with preasure washer like 3 times.

Now the engine runs almost like new.

 

Toyota SERIOUSLY should have put retainer clips on that back gasket. The front of valve one: that one they put clips on.

 

Ah necessity is the mother of invention .

Glad it worked out.

 

I’m sure it is a lifetime gasket.

They would probably say no need to access or change it.