Question about carbon clogging in egr system

Pressure washer and oven cleaner for the cooler. NOT the egr valve though. Gunk and a wire
brush works for that.

Then search online for junk yards for a spare cooler. Then you can clean that and have it
ready for the next time you the EGR Circuit.

 

An easy start is to get the nut off the lower bracket on the cooler. You can do that anytime; the system is still secure minus that one nut, and you don’t need to remove anything else to get to it. You can leave it off too.

that’s pretty much the hardest thing to get to; get that done and you’ll know you’re on your way.

 

I'm glad someone gets it. All this debate and call for testing: if you've got over 100K, don't muck about, clean it.

 

Couldn't. Agree. More.

 

Or, if you're interested in PriusChat eventually being able to learn how well Mendel's intuition compares to reality, you can participate in gathering real data. That doesn't have to prevent you from taking the stuff apart and cleaning if you want to do that proactively. It is super easy to pull up the test results, once before you do the work and once after, and post the before/after numbers and your mileage over on the test data thread. That way, the community as a whole steadily advances to a better understanding of the facts Mendel thinks he already has.

 

Buy EGR KIT not just EGR unit. Stupidly Toyota sell the kit way cheaper than the EGR alone. NEW OEM TOYOTA 10-2012 PRIUS & 2012 EGR VALVE KIT WITH GASKETS | eBay

You can search in ebay with Toyota actual dealer account or call your local dealership. It is about $170 complete KIT with new EGR. The cooler is generally fine, just blow it of with a compressor without removing the whole unit.

is the best so far

 

I like this guy, he's good and makes sense.
He talked about more "hands on", showing him doing the work.
But he fast forwards through it!

At 8:50s he says the egr cooler rarely get blocked...
At 14:25, he shows the clogged egr ports on the intake manifold.
They get clogged, but the cooler doesn't?
Maybe Toyota changed the ones he worked on so he never saw a clogged one?
16:50, He "blew" out the cooler. I did laugh at this one! "MAYBEEEE" that is all THIS one needed.
But I can tell you, my original needed more, and the replacement one needed more.
And the 2nd time for the original needed more.
And I have worked in automotive shops!

I'd like to know what he tells them when it does clog, and blows the head gasket?

 

Maybe it's not stupidly. They have had various kits like that. For adding cruise control to a Gen 1, you could buy the cruise stalk, brake pedal switch, and $600 steering wheel separately, or the $140 kit with all three.

Dealer parts pricing is complicated, because as much of it has to do with what it costs them to warehouse and track the stuff, as with what the stuff cost them to make. So they might decide to price the kits lower, because that's the way they want people to buy the stuff mostly ... or their pricing system might end up reducing the price of the kits, because they are what people are buying mostly, so they are moving through distribution smartly without racking up a lot of cubic-meter-hours or however they measure that.

 

Hi EGR people! I cleaned my entire EGR, intake, throttle body and MAF. Also installed a catch can. No apparent coolant leaks (coolant level is normal), no white gunk in my oil. Replaced all my spark plugs. Still I have some rattle/knock as I did before I did all this work!

What do you think this could be?

 

Did you look at the top of the pistons while you had plugs out and see of any of
the pistons looked cleaner than the others? You may have a small head gasket leak,
just starting.
Do you shut the car off while the engine is running? It could just be the cold climate
you're in is causing condensation.

 

Ouch head gasket leak, that's my worst nightmare! Do you think I should try some kind of stop leak just to keep it at bay? It's a 2010 with 238K. How would condensation cause this? Also, i do have a fear that my oil catch can is not a great setup. Do you think I should go back to a regular PCV valve only setup? When I did all the above work there was a lot of oil in the intake manifold but I was hoping that would be fixed with the new oil catch can setup.

Also, how do you look at the cylinders? The spark plugs are so deep down in there! Sorry about all the questions. I really want to get my prius working well again.

 

Don't be sorry about asking questions, that's how you get answers...
You can shine a light through the spark plug hole and look down... You can be a "low cost" bore scope/camera
from ebay for about $30, give or take, that works with the iPad or iPhone and slide in down the spark plug hole.

DO NOT PUT ANY STOP LEAK IN THE OIL!!!!! That will clog up the heater core, radiator, and small ports
in the engine. And it's a lot of work to clear it out.

If you do have a bad head gasket, the only way to actually FIX it, is to replace it.
And it will be more cost effective for you to replace the head gasket yourself, and NOT have to spend another
day trying to clear the crap out of the cooling system.

 

Head gasket repair needs proper repair by using revised version or FELPRO head gasket. Many mechanics use FELPRO because it has thicker lips and prevent head gasket again. In most cases, we need to machine the head to make it perfectly flat. If you use any sealer products it always cause problems and worse in the next few miles:
1. Heater core clogged is inside HVAC AC system. It cost close to $1400 or more to replace that.
2. radiator, the water pump may be damaged from clogging and abrasion too.
3. This sealer often clogged the water channel and jacket around the cylinder block and make proper repair more complicated.

If you just want to sell it, it is still better to tell the truth. Someone may have idea how to do head gasket by themselves and still value the car well. How much oil does your 2010 Prius burn every year/10k miles? If it is more than 5 quarts, it may be better to replace it with used 2015 or newer engines instead. At that age and mileage, your catalytic converter is dying if the head gasket leak occurs for a long period of time.

 

After egr and IM cleaning our 2010 appears to have somewhat better mpg. Driving is mostly low speed city driving where egr should improve mpg if it works properly. Before cleaning it was not working properly since it was almost fully clogged. No error codes though

 

It is unfortunate that people go to all the expense of changing accessories when the same amount of time in experienced hands would have changed the head gasket. Which can work if caught early otherwise its replacement engine time. Which is really the worst nightmare especially if it blows a hole in the side of the block during rush hour on a freezing day.

Sealant has a diagnostic benefit but you can't leave it in. Regardless of what the marketing guys say. Even if the marketing is on the can or is competing theories about egrs coming from Priuschat.

 

Sealant works if you just want to sell it fast. In most scenario it is never a good solution. By just selling as is with head gasket issue, you can still get roughly $2000 for 2010 200k miles in south states.

 

I've only had the car a few months but it does not appear to be burning very much oil at all, so that's good. I really need to make the time to get out there and inspect the cylinders with a camera and see if I can clean the intake again...

Is there a good source for used Prius engines? I don't need it yet but it's good to have an idea if and when the time comes. Also this car still has the original battery, but it seems to be working just fine (knock on wood!) at 238K!