Bottom EGR Cooler Nut Accessible From Bottom?

Im having a hell of a time with this damn cooler too. The two studs at the back connecting it to the exhaust are rusted pretty bad on mine, and I don’t want to break them because I don’t have replacements. It’s probably pretty important that it goes b am on tight against the exhaust. I’m thinking my best bet might be to try to take the lower stud as well as the forward most one out and then slide it forward off of those rusted studs. Also, I’m trying to pinch off the hoses to avoid draining the coolant but it’s probably more trouble this way. I’m putting the hoses on the back burner until I’m sure I can even get the damn thing off. That bottom nut is so hard to get to.

 

If you drain 2 quarts out of the radiator (into a clean contaiiner), the EGR circuit will be high-and-dry. Apart from a tablespoon or two trapped at the back corner of the cooler. Then there's no need to clamp hoses. Clamp is kinda ineffectual anyway: you clamp hoses, then pull them off, and about a pint of coolant pours out of the cooler above...

When everything's reassembled, just pour the drained coolant back into the reservoir. If you've got the coolant bleed bolt, open it while adding the fluid back. If not, pull off a topmost hose, accomplish the same venting. Once coolant flows out quickly close the valve, or push the hose back on. Also might help to squeeze the main coolant hoses during the refill. A day or two driving and the coolant level will settle back down.

Yeah I think if you removed all the other "lateral" studs, the cooler/valve could come straight forward and off.

FWIW, a lot are taking the bolt on underside bracket of cooler (highlighted in yellow):



off, and leaving it off. Just to avoid the hassle of having to deal with it again. So I guess you could also leave off the associated stud (also highlighted in yellow).

 

Well, hey I got lucky and the bottom stud actually came off without a fight. I didn’t bother with the nut and just went straight with the e8 torx and the stud just backed on out. In case anyone else had the same problem with rusted studs, it did work leaving the two at the back attached and just removing the nuts. I was able to pull it forward and get it free just by taking off the two lateral studs. My car had been hesitating at the first acceleration of the day and stuttering at low RPMs under load, so I replaced the fuel injectors which were pretty filthy anyway, but it didn’t fix the problem. Spark plugs were done less than 30,000 miles ago. The only thing left was the cooler which I was not looking forward to, but after getting it off there’s no way it’s not the source of my issues. The thing is nasty. Airtight. Pictures below. Hooking up the pressure washer now. I’ll come back and let everyone know of it fixed the hesitation and stuttering after it’s all back together. Thanks for the thread.

 

Clicked on your avatar and noticed this question. Just in case it's not resolved: as you're standing at the front facing engine bay, cylinder one is on the left end. I would suggest first to try swapping coil 2 and coil 4, see if the problem follows, ie you get code p0304. If that happens then it's the coil for sure.

However, it doesn't change, you're still getting p0302, it's almost always head gasket failure. It always seems to be between cylinder 1 and 2. And that may be a consequence of the EGR gas feeding in from the cylinder 4 end.

I forget if you've cleaned the intake as yet. Check the condition of the small diameter EGR passageways, at each port. #1 and #2 tend to be the worst.

 

Thanks yeah, I ended up replacing the coils one by one as they went bad cause I’m cheap , but that was the issue. That was thousands of miles ago and the car has run great until recently when I’ve been getting the hesitation/sputtering issue. I’ve been watching the coolant level and checking for the mayo-oil that would indicate a blow HG, but it seems fine for now. 210,000 miles so I’ve been lucky to not have to deal with that yet, but I’m kind of anticipating it happening sooner or later, so I’ve been trying to study up on how to change the gasket so I’ll be ready when the day comes.

 

Btw, I’ve got the car buttoned back up from the EGR job and have no issue on the initial test drive. I didn’t bother with the lower stud bolt. It ain’t going anywhere.

 

Keep that as a souvenir .

I have about a dozen of them.

If you ever club up to a Gen4 or Prime, you don't just get nuts as keepsakes you get parts:

 

So Ray you got to remove the EGR on your Prime? Having fun doing it?

 

Pulled the egr pipe and manifold and installed an oil catch can:

Oil Catch Can

In order to do the cooler, I'll have to move the inverter.

Cramming the 12 volt battery up front doesn't just make the engine bay more crowded, I expect a shorter life out of the battery.

But it looks great all cleaned up:



Go side emblem-less.

 

Anyone wanna take a stab at this: I’ve cleaned out my EGR pipe and cooler, and exhaust manifold (Including the small port holes), throttle body, MAF with proper cleaner, and replaced my fuel injectors and the car is still running funny. Each time I finished a job and test drove it at night it seemed fine until I drove the next day in the hot weather. Not sure what the problem could be now, but it seems worse in this 99 degree Florida heat. When I had the manifold off I didn’t see any obvious signs of a blown HG. It feels like there’s a poor fuel/air mixture, or a vacuum leak or something. I’m thinking maybe it wouldn’t hurt to do the O2 sensors next, but I don’t have any CEL codes. Planning on doing another intake cleaning just to be more thorough, and to install an OCC.

 

Funny how? Rough idle? Stumbling? Hesitation? ...

For when there aren't other things to go on, like trouble codes, the Repair Manual (more info) does have a Problem Symptoms Table to give ideas what to check. I've kind of glommed the three pages together here.

As you'd guess, the blue "INFO" buttons in the real manual take you directly to the corresponding workups. In this image, of course, they're inert. But kinda pretty.

Edit: Hey, thanks, XenForo! I did not upload it that small.

 

Sputtering under load at low rpms, and I think when decelerating. Idle seems fine. The car hesitates the first time I give the gas a good push everyday and then doesn’t anymore once it’s warmed up, but the sputtering Usually happens right at or above the line where the ICE kicks on. I figured it must be ignition or air intake related, but I’ve done everything there is to do. Maybe I didnt get the cooler good enough? I hit it with a bottle of brake clean and a pressure washer. ThE problem almost seems to be getting worse as the weather gets hotter, but that could be a coincidence or my imagination.

 

Have you looked in the table above for the suggestions next to your symptoms?

 

Yeah, I guess the hesitation/poor acceleration section would be the closest, but I don’t think it’s a fuel line/pump as the pumps don’t tend to go bad. Fuel injectors were replaced. My best guess was something in the ignition system, or. A vacuum leak somewhere, but it’s all been clean or replaced. Plugs look fine. Maybe I can inspect the hoses more closely. Honestly surprised nothing I’ve done so far has fixed it.

 

Valve timing maybe? Is that a thing that causes these symptoms?

Fuel pump control circuit? What even is that.

knock control sensor? No clue.


Air fuel ratio sensor? Never heard of her.

 

There's lots more information where that came from....

I wouldn't rule out the fuel pump arbitrarily. There have been threads here where one did wear out. There's a pressure test.

 

@thomassurdi
How did you go, is the issue resolved?