Professional EGR Cleaning Resources

hello I just read your post and I noticed you mentioned cold start shake is that due to EGR clogging ?

 

Prorad Radiator Services (Houston, TX)
just did my egr (2012 prius 3, 260k).
I had Ultrasound tanked it in MEK, sprayed, wire rodded, soaked, etc. with carb clean, and it was still pretty bad.
They had it for a day and its whistle clean for $60

 

Oven cleaner and a pressure washer....

 

I don't even use any cleaner anymore. Just blow out as much as possible with compressed air and then use a high pressure pressure washer. (And an apron, and rubber boots, and a face shield. LOL)

 

I'll try that on my next one here in a month.

 

Honestly, it's just a real pain in the butt to get it off your car. Once there? Plan to replace any connected gaskets and get a tub of degreaser ready. I got my brushes and cleaned it in many differwnt ways. Hot water, flusbes, heavy-duty degreaser, purple power, carb cleaner, and let that built-up carbon come out. It took several weeks to get it ro run clear again. But that was 186k of gunk in there. Since i was there zi decided to replace the head gasket too, which is what I'm finishing now before rebuikding. Good luck to anyone and have patience on this task.

 

Hm, I didn't see this post at the time.

While it's true that water is incompressible, you can also just have a small amount of water in there, just enough to cause misfiring. Misfiring in a Prius will make an awful rattling and shaking, but clear up when the misfiring stops.

The incompressibility of water only comes into play in a more severe situation. If there is enough water in there to make "the pistons struggle to get over top dead center", then they won't get over top dead center—'incompressible' literally means what it says—unless the connecting rods bend first, or something goes out the side of the engine block. That is the sort of event that happens once, and will not, um, clear up afterward.

 

Such a threshold probably exists. However, the awful rattling and clanking and beating up of "the damper twixt engine and transaxle" requires only that the engine misfire. For any of the myriad reasons an engine can misfire. Whether or not there is anything incompressible in the chamber. And therefore it's a bit of distraction to keep bringing incompressibility into an explanation of those symptoms.

It's never too often to remember that AECS paper about a Prius that was sold for scrap price because of the clattering and shaking and banging, which turned out to be traceable to one bum spark plug.

Does that mean it'll be a bum spark plug every time? No, but that paper explained what it is about the Prius drive train that makes any kind of simple misfire produce the violent symptoms that result.

 

I mean the reality is there's nothing to this the first time taking off the EGR cooler is a little tricky and you may drop a couple of nuts no worries you can buy bolts at the parts store I eliminated the studs the bottom jig on the cooler with the eye for the bolt are the stud in the nut to go on I cut that off my cooler so that that nut is no longer needed and won't hold anything but not next to it that holds the line onto the head stays there goes back. And then the stud that comes out of the head the long one that the valve just sits on I used a long bolt there but the stud is still okay I have it laying here on the shelf I just didn't use it taking the manifold office only a couple of bolts run your gun brushes through the passageways and each port and it goes right back on you tank the cooler and the metal pipe that bends over and connects to the plastic manifold my EGR valve generally don't look like anything there's a little bit of black but there's not anything clogged I usually pull the motor cover off make sure the plastics intact and generally that's very clean in there wipe it off if needed put the cover back on the motor and then if you want you can clean the EGR actual passageway through the valve that you like I couldn't find the plastic ramp thingy that breaks inside of here mine was all intact and when you turn the screw the valve opens and closes etc seems to be free and works very well by hand said it back where it was close it all up back it goes unless there's something broken or makes me believe it won't open and close when commanded it all goes back on. You can get a replacement probably many places I mean the person that works on computers for a living could do this the bolts and screws are just a little bigger it is that easy it's ridiculous easy I can't imagine paying somebody $450 or $500 to do this it took me about an hour to disassemble took 3 Days to tank and clean the cooler and the valve passage. And then reassembly was much faster eliminating that bottom nut and replacing a few of the studs on the back of the cooler and using short bolts there went back together 35 minutes.

 

Good idea

A lot us have time that is more valuable than having to take several hours on and off and then several days of downtime to clean. The shops I know have a bucket full of cleaned egr coolers ready to swap in.

The first time I did it was the last time my hands and lungs had exposure to egr solvents.

 

The shop where I sometimes help out has someone (it used to be me) who spends about 2 to 4 hours a week cleaning dirty EGRs and intake manifolds.

 

I'll do it for $1500

 

Just finished changing the PCV valve, trans fluid, engine and inverter coolant on my base 2012 Prius at 85K miles. I got the front off the ground in my garage by using my steel ramps. I placed a 2 x 8 that I cut down to 2 x 7 that was 24" long placed near the bottom of the ramp so the car would miss hitting the ramps. The ramps were set on rubber floor mats that I use at my front and back doors so they wouldn't slide on the concrete. Those ramps give a good amount of work space under the front end vs. the shorter in height, Rhino ramps. I used a 3 ton floor jack to lift the rear of the car and set it on 3 ton jack stands making it as level as possible.Using the great advice by Mendel and NutzAboutBolts, The CarCareNut etc made the job easy. I could not get my 22mm socket with flex head ratchet to loosen the PCV valve. I initially broke it loose using the open end of a 22mm combination wrench Then I used my standard 1/2" ratchet/22mm socket, to remove the PCV valve and install the new one. Oh yes I did move the high voltage orange hybrid cable out of the way as suggested. Much easier replacement job than expected. The rest of the maintenance went along without issue. I used a small diameter hose and funnel to refill the transmission fluid. All Toyota fluids were used in spite of their horrible costs.These dealers act like they are starving to death. In fact my quote from two local dealers to do this work exceeded $1,000
Anyway it was good to be able to do this myself and save big bucks. In reading this thread about the EGR service, I am wondering if I made a mistake in buying a Prius. Maybe I am over reacting but it sure seems like a lot of unusal maintenance to me considering other cars I've owned. You guys mention the intake must be cleaned, cleaning the EGR system, cleaning the throttle body (I know it's common on other cars I have), installing the catch can mod, and quite possibly the hybrid battery failing. I bought mine new but didn't know about all the maintenance required to keep it up. I don't have a lot of miles on it yet so I think I'll be OK for awhile. Like I say I hope I am just over reactlng? Thank you very much to all of you who have provided your unselfish knowlege on maintaining the Prius

 

Noticed in the owners manual for a 2014 that Toyota recommends high quality gasoline with extra cleaning ingredients. Thought this sort of odd and maybe it's a recognition of the problem with clogged intake manifolds. This would be Tier 1 grade gas. All name brand gasolines EXCEPT Amoco, Gulf, and BP. Can't go wrong with Mobil.