golffnutt Posted June 29, 2005 Share Posted June 29, 2005 Today my check engine light came on in my 1996 ES300. The troublenote says "egr valve flow malfunction". It was recommended that I remove the egr valve and clean it good with carb cleaner. I tried getting it off but could not get it off the pipe it is attached to. It looks like it is pressed into this pipe or something and not screwed into it. Can anyone tell me how to remove this puppy so I can try cleaning it before I have to invest $200 plus in a new one, I would reallly appreciate the help. Also if anyone has a recommendation on a source that may have a good price please email me their website address. Again, I would really appreciate any help or advice anyone could give me. Thank you very much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monarch Posted June 30, 2005 Share Posted June 30, 2005 The factory advises replacing, not cleaning the EGR valve. However, you can clean the EGR piping out of accumulated carbon if there is significant buildup. The solution to avoiding EGR valve and system problems is minimize the amount of unburned hydrocarbons that are generated by the engine to begin with. That is accomplished by changing spark plugs and motor oil more often than the minimum frequency intervals called for in the owners manual and always using the exact same spark plugs that the factory installed. It also means changing the oxygen sensor about every 100,000 - 125,000 miles or so and cleaning the throttle plate of deposits about every 30,000 miles. Also means keeping the cooling system in perfect, factory orignal shape. I followed these guidelines and my factory original EGR system is still functioning well after 464,000 miles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
golffnutt Posted June 30, 2005 Author Share Posted June 30, 2005 The factory advises replacing, not cleaning the EGR valve. However, you can clean the EGR piping out of accumulated carbon if there is significant buildup.The solution to avoiding EGR valve and system problems is minimize the amount of unburned hydrocarbons that are generated by the engine to begin with. That is accomplished by changing spark plugs and motor oil more often than the minimum frequency intervals called for in the owners manual and always using the exact same spark plugs that the factory installed. It also means changing the oxygen sensor about every 100,000 - 125,000 miles or so and cleaning the throttle plate of deposits about every 30,000 miles. Also means keeping the cooling system in perfect, factory orignal shape. I followed these guidelines and my factory original EGR system is still functioning well after 464,000 miles. ← Monarch thanks for the detailed reply. I just bought the car and have no prior service records so I do not know how well maintained the car has been although I really think it was well cared for. Has 143,000 miles runs and looks great, this is the first problem I have had with it. The check engine light was not on last night when I came home from the office, but when I started the engine this morning to go to work the check engine light was on and has been all day today. Guess I will have to replace the EGR valve as you say. How would you suggest cleaing out the piping as you suggested? Thanks again for the info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toysrme Posted June 30, 2005 Share Posted June 30, 2005 Clean it off first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
golffnutt Posted June 30, 2005 Author Share Posted June 30, 2005 Today the check engine light came on in my 1996 ES300. When I had the code read it states "egr valve flow malfuntion". It was suggested that I remove and clean the egr valve and that would probably cure the problem. I have tried to do this but can not figure out how to remove the valve from the pipe it is attached to. The valve appears to be pressed into the pipe or is part of the pipe of something, at any rate I see no screw or bolt that just holds the valve to this pipe. There are 3 screws which hold the pipes in place but those do not allow me to remove the valve from the pipe to clean the passage way. Any help help would be greatly appreciated as I am sure this is such a common problem that many of you have done this before. Thank you VERY MUCH for your help an advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mburnickas Posted June 30, 2005 Share Posted June 30, 2005 Today my check engine light came on in my 1996 ES300. The troublenote says "egr valve flow malfunction". It was recommended that I remove the egr valve and clean it good with carb cleaner. I tried getting it off but could not get it off the pipe it is attached to. It looks like it is pressed into this pipe or something and not screwed into it. Can anyone tell me how to remove this puppy so I can try cleaning it before I have to invest $200 plus in a new one, I would reallly appreciate the help. Also if anyone has a recommendation on a source that may have a good price please email me their website address. Again, I would really appreciate any help or advice anyone could give me. Thank you very much. ← You can do everything by the book and still have issues. Mine went out at 70K miles and the car is CPO... Case-in-point, things happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steviej Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 It would have been easier if you posted this in your already ongoing EGR valve thread. Two simultaneous running threads virtually about the same problem gets very confusing so I have merged the two threads. steviej Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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