EGR problem?

[99BoostedRS]

Ok so today i was driving my car around and got a CEL while driving(I was driving normal nothing crazy didn't even go over 3.5k rpm) i pulled over and plugged in my OBDII scanner and i got a p0401 code(Insufficient EGR flow). My EGR sensor says the EGR itself is ok.

Anybody know what could be wrong with it?

thanks in advance.

 

[doctor_shock10]

Ok so today i was driving my car around and got a CEL while driving(I was driving normal nothing crazy didn't even go over 3.5k rpm) i pulled over and plugged in my OBDII scanner and i got a p0401 code(Insufficient EGR flow). My EGR sensor says the EGR itself is ok.

Anybody know what could be wrong with it?

thanks in advance.

it could to cloged or a vacuum hose blew off. id start there!

 

[99BoostedRS]

Yea the first thing i checked was the vacuum hoses and they were all connected good. What would you guys recommend to clean the valve and the lines?

 

[pgarland]

I used carb cleaner last time I had my EGR off, it did a pretty good job. Had to use the whole can on it though.

 

[99BoostedRS]

Can i clean the EGR valve without taking it off?

And if i were to remove it and block it off i wouldn't pass emissions right?

 

[mcneilmg]

Yea the first thing i checked was the vacuum hoses and they were all connected good. What would you guys recommend to clean the valve and the lines?

Sounds to mean that possibly the EGR diaprham may be faulty not allowing the pintle to move. You can bench test it to check if its stuck open on a peice of carbon by blowing into the bottom of the valve while holding your thumb over the top to see if there is air coming out. Secondly you can grab a vacuum pump and apply 15 hg on the valve to see if it starts to open ( I believe thats what Mitchell ON Demand said for a test procedure). My Talons EGR pintle was held open by a peice of carbon and would not allow the car to idle because it acted as a vacuum leak. Had to take the intake off because I accidentally broke a bolt in the process of removing the EGR. I glass bead blasted my intake and the EGR and the car runs great. With only 130,000 miles on the motor the EGR passages were really carbond up. Hope this gives you a sense of direction.

 

[pgarland]

Can i clean the EGR valve without taking it off?

And if i were to remove it and block it off i wouldn't pass emissions right?

I would take it off to clean it, it's much easier, isn't complicated to get it off, and this way you're not blowing all that carbon back into your motor (causing more problems).

Blocking the EGR will give you a CEL (I have heard there are ways around that, but haven't found any yet myself, maybe someone else could help with this?), but it also keeps your motor much much cleaner.

Some people just block it off for most of the year, and just take out the block off plates for their yearly inspection (like I said, taking the EGR off doesn't take long at all). Not sure you want to go through all that, but I will tell you this, cleaning that EGR will make a huge difference in how well the car runs. At the very least get that thing cleaned out, you'll be glad you did.

 

[99BoostedRS]

Ok so i took off the EGR and cleaned it and holy s**t did alot of gunk come out from that little tube. I was also pretty amazed how well the carb cleaner worked. And yes my CEL went off finally.

Thanks alot for all the help guys!!

 

[pgarland]

Glad to be of help. Aren't you glad you took off the EGR now, after seeing all that muck come out of it?

 

[99BoostedRS]

Yea i was but ofcourse with the luck i've been having while i was driving on the highway the CEL came on and guess what it was? EGR AGAIN WTF ol fml. I'm just gonna get a new one and clean the tube again

 

[caboose]

, going to clean mine now.

 

[Dsmj89]

Delete that S.O.B. ! Lol.

 

[99BoostedRS]

Delete that S.O.B. ! Lol.

Lol trust me i thought of taking out the whole egr system and blocking it but i gotta pass emissions in a few days but yea ima just gonna buy the egr block off kit and put it on once a year for emissions but for now i gotta buy one that actually works .

 

[pgarland]

After a lot of searching, I came across this thread:

Team 2GNT Forum - Viewing topic #127178 - EGR Blockoff Q's

Now I haven't done this mod myself, so I can't tell you whether or not it works, but I am definitely going to give it a try (and will update this thread when I do). Might be something you want to try too. If you do go through with it, be sure to come back and update the thread as to your results, I know a lot of people are interested in finding out if this works.

And as far as NY inspections go, from everything I have read you should be able to pass with the EGR blocked, so long as you don't have a CEL. A CEL will cause you to fail inspection immediately though. Hope this helps.

 

[99BoostedRS]

After a lot of searching, I came across this thread:

Team 2GNT Forum - Viewing topic #127178 - EGR Blockoff Q's

Now I haven't done this mod myself, so I can't tell you whether or not it works, but I am definitely going to give it a try (and will update this thread when I do). Might be something you want to try too. If you do go through with it, be sure to come back and update the thread as to your results, I know a lot of people are interested in finding out if this works.

And as far as NY inspections go, from everything I have read you should be able to pass with the EGR blocked, so long as you don't have a CEL. A CEL will cause you to fail inspection immediately though. Hope this helps.

Very interesting thread i think i might do the one where they tell you to block off both the head and block and keep the harness plugged in but drive the car with no less the 3/4 tank for a while to pass inspection.

Thanks alot for that forum man it helped alot.

 

[99BoostedRS]

This is probably the dumbest thing that has happened to me so far with this car. What happened was the header to downpipe connection was loose which I'm guessing their was barely any back pressure which maybe triggered that code? I still can't believe this was the problem and even worse i didn't see it before.