Not Your Typical EGR Problem, New Member

Just in case: should be just the EGR valve needs replacing.

 

I wonder how many people can.

 

Just because its 2 vehicles and intermittent
Have you ruled out a vacuum hose or nipple obstruction inside pushed in while cleaning?
or a bent or crimped or impeding vacuum line ?

 

Happy Thanksgiving.

@RedPrichetta any updates?

Pixel XL ?

 

Hi
I had same problem, caused by removing the egr motor for inspection and curiosity.
I figured out ,that first I have to screw in the magnet and hold it with flat screw driver while installing
The black motor. Later on you must disconnect the battery for couple of minutes.
It’s ok now.
I have learned ,dont touch it if it’s
not broken,,,,!!

 

I am about to embark on an EGR cleansing quest myself. Did you ever get to the bottom of this Red? I am curious about your outcome before I tear into mine.

 

Just don't disassemble the valve.

 

Now now.

It can be done .

And allows the thorough cleaning of the chamber .

 

So, at 155k+ miles I finally got around to cleaning out the EGR. I should have taken photos, I apologize. From the looks of things, another few miles and I probably would have been ordering a new cooler. I couldn't pass liquid, air or light through that sucker. 3-4 cans of brake cleaner, an air compressor and a piece of welding rod (small enough to pass through the cooler) later and I got things back to 95% ish of new. While I had everything apart I changed out the plugs, pcv valve and cleaned the throttle body and intake manifold. I highly recommend hitting up NutzAboutBolts on youtube! Can't say enough about the help their videos provided.

 

Next project.... get a Catch Can.........

 

Cool. let me try that tomorrow. Ran into same issue after taking apart the valve motor to get a better valve cleaning.

Do you or anyone get a better look inside the magnet? Mine looked like something had broken off(see enclosed, that white spot). Appreciate it if someone can post a photo if they took it off..

 

(this is all from memory, which sometimes is not reliable for me)

That reminds me of the white grease I found in my EGR motor when I opened it up recently. I tried to leave that mostly untouched.

I had no problems. I disconnected the 12V battery ground cable when I started the whole project (full EGR system cleaning, intake manifold cleaning, OCC install).

Looking at the motor after I opened it up, (so this could be completely wrong, it's just what it looked like to me) I concluded there was no fixed physical home position. Wherever the rotor was on the helix, the stator should be able to spin it wherever it was needed, and this suggested that an adaptive approach would be used.

So I spun the magnet / rotor on there almost all the way, kind of holding it there with my little finger while reassembling. Did not think there was a need for a tool to hold it precisely at the end because I assumed that with no home position it would need to be adaptive. I just made sure there was no binding or jamming that could stop things from moving, and slipped it on fairly quickly so it would not unspin too much. I actually thought that it could be a problem if one were to try to place it at the very end - that it could be jammed in place, unable to move when commanded.

I can believe having the 12V disconnected for over a day (took my sweet time) helped it decide to keep high gains on the adaptation when turned on for the first time after the work.

Opening it up did allow me to slightly more carefully clean a few spots on the valve shaft with a q-tip, so it's worth something to open it up.

No problems before or after for me, on my 2012 v with about 63k miles now.

OP - I read through this all again. You refer a few times to the "motor." Being more specific, do you mean just the outer shell = stator, or both the rotor + stator? I can see how either option would make sense. And did you not open up the valve part of the assembly at all then, on your brother's car or when swapping back onto yours?

 

I did the same thing as you and haven't had any problems....and that was 40,000 miles ago.... 250,000 now

 

I did not do 12 volt neg battery disconnect, nothing was amiss after. I really don't think there's anything risky. Doesn't hurt though.

Who knows, might be a factor.

Yeah I didn't open it up, just worked around. I very carefully pried up the valve lip, then ran a thin paddle around the perimeter, gave it shots of brake cleaner, cleaned from both ends. Less stressing? The screws were what defeated me at the outset. Yeah I could go gonzo, hammer it with my impact screw driver (old school, hit it with a regular hammer), but meh...

It'd be REAL nice to know the thread pitch/diameter of those screws. If you've loosen them off enough that it's trivial to remove one, could you could test fit it with metric nuts at the hardware store, post the results??

 

That's what it reminds me of too. It starts out on the pintle threads so the rotor can easily spin, and over the years it gets kind of squished out and collects where it isn't doing any good. I just scooped it up with a skinny screwdriver and put it back on the threads.

If you look up inside that rotor, you can see the closed end has kind of a sawtooth-shaped ramp cast into it (the abrupt end of the ramp is right where that ectopic grease blob wound up). Then if you look down at the pintle shaft, the disc at the bottom with the spring behind it has a definite raised bump. And that disc isn't loose on the shaft, it is fixed in that position. As you wind the rotor down onto the pintle, you get a very positive stop when ramp meets bump. That's home, valve closed.

The 'adaptive' strategy for finding it seems to be about as simple as can be:

Yeah, it may unspin a little, and that in turn may mean that the pintle pushes open a little bit while you push the stator on and tighten the screws. But that just gives you a chance to confirm that you got any binding or jamming taken care of, because if you did, and the pintle is a little open when you're done, it should not be very hard to just push closed with your thumb. You should hear and feel the rotor quietly whirring inside as you do, no rough or scraping noises.

I don't know where this tool was all my life:

Lisle 62140 Seized Fastener Remover Master Kit

but man. Bzzt. Bzzt. Like buttah. And no worries about breaking the screws.

 

Thanks for the link.

The inside of the valve pic you posted is worriesome. Any ideas how it got like that; do you know the car's history? Looks like something basic was liberally sprayed. Maybe someone had the valve off, and was spraying it with oven cleaner??

 

Judging from my needing the Lisle tool to get in there, I did not assume that anyone had been there before me.

I do live in a place where the roads are corrosive for some months every year. And that space is not sealed; there are openings to atmosphere (facing down, when the valve is in position).