1.4tdi egr clean

[Dubboy]

Hi there,

Looking to clean my egr valve and was wondering if there is and gaskets I need to get before I do the job.

Cheers

[GeneralPurpose]

Yes, if you are going to do it properly it's best to clean the intake manifold by removing it as that will have significant carbon inside. Risky to do it in situ. There are some other gaskets needed so talk to your dealer. They do a kit. 

[tamiyaandy]

Not wanting to butt in, but if you drive your 1.4 properly I shouldn't think it will need cleaning, put your foot down from time to time plus good weekend runs should keep it clear.

I'd leave well alone if your not getting any problems.

[Dubboy]

The reason I am asking is because the mpg has gone down just lately ,and my wife is the main user so it only get driven to work and back most of the time,with a round trip of about 10 miles and she drives like a granny lol.

Cheers

[tamiyaandy]

I see, think you need to heed the advice of Estate Man, looking at were it is, access is tight, I'd think twice about attempting this on your driveway!

What sort of MPG figures are you seeing?... Any noticeable changes in the way the car is?

[Dubboy]

At the mo I am getting between 35-43 mpg around town but notice a difference on the final tank mileage where we used to get near 400mpg we are now getting around 350mpg to the tank.

Now I know the because we are using the aircon more it uses more but I wouldn't think it would be that much?

Cheers

[tamiyaandy]

Unless your driving style is different to me that is low even with air-con on.

 

If i reset on a monday log no.2 my weekly commute ( only 7 miles each way ) by friday im showing 55-58MPG Average

 

We went to leeds last weekend ( 500 mile round trip ) And i averaged 66.7 MPG.

 

But if i drive to work in the morning at 40mph in 5th (1300rpm) after the 7 miles i can squeeze 83-85MPG!!! :clap:

 

Anyway, Something seems wrong, any fault codes showing up?

[Dubboy]

No light on the dash or faults have come up.

my misses is very frugal when she drives so she get the higher mpg out of the 2 of us lol.

tge car doesnt smoke at all or any other signs that there is something wrong.

cheers

[Dubboy]

Hi there,

Just took a quick pic of my egr valve I just took the pipe off the side to see how bad it was,and here it is.

What do you think?

Cheers

[tamiyaandy]

Well I'm no expert and maybe estate man can be clearer, but to me that doesn't look to bad, it's not heavily covered and imagine with some rag you would shift most of it.

I'm sure it's more of a worry if its "baked" on, so I suggest a good clean up with rag and carb cleaner, or pipe cleaning brushes, then take the car out for a good blast.

[GeneralPurpose]

Yes, looks a bit manky but not too unusual. It just might be at the stage where it is sticking however. How many miles has it done? I would not attempt to do any cleaning whilst the valve is in situ. It can be dangerous. 

[Dubboy]

I think it is on 52kish , I wasnt gonna do it in situ got tge gaskets for it now and carb cleaner.

[tamiyaandy]

Sounds wise based on the above advice, be interested to hear how you get on, keep us posted!

[Dubboy]

Shall do buddy

[Dubboy]

Well got the egr off today and it was quite bad with black oily stuff ,so I gave it a good clean with carb cleaner ,but the only problem now is the intake manifold needs doing but I couldn't do it today because I couldn't get the gasket.

Hopefully this will help to improve the mpg.

Cheers

[tamiyaandy]

Wow that was a lot of muck and carbon!!!, good job on the clean up.

[Dubboy]

Cheers buddy,it was surprising how much there was,do you know how many gaskets I would need to take the manifold off is it just the I one .

Cheers

[tamiyaandy]

I'm not sue, it's either gunna be one complete gasket, or three i imagine being a 3-pot.

Really hope it improves things for you once done, suppose it throws the question, "why did it get so mucky?" Is that normal build up?, is something else wrong causing that?

Sure all will be fine, the 1.4 3 pot is a cracker, still makes me smile with its little growl through the rev range! LoL

[Dubboy]

Could be a case of it being driven like a granny and cheap supermarket desiel .

[GeneralPurpose]

Nice clean up job. Yes you will defo need a new inlet manifold gasket, plus the o ring inlet gasket, but that pic of yours looks like it shows a new one. The main inlet gasket was around £13 for the genuine item and the other one I think was £9. I always use genuine items. You can get them cheaper if aftermarket items are used. For everyone elses info, always clean the inlet manifold when doing the egr and it has to be removed like you are going to do for it to be cleaned safely. Driving a diesel slowly, or on light throttle settings at low revs, never giving it a good thrashing (which they all need and you won't hurt it!) does also bugger up the egr. Also, supermarket diesel does contribute to more carbon build up it's reckoned. At one time, me and my colleagues could tell at a glance once we had lifted the head what fuel an engine had been run on by the state of the valves and carbon build up in the head. Usually we were right too!  I do believe it was so bad a decade ago that the supermarkets had to do something to clean up their act and more cleaners have now been added. In addition, more bio fuel has been added recently and this has the effect of cleaning the engine inside as you run but the side effect is more folk are complaining about their diesel not running right and being lumpy. This is due to the extra cleaning ability of the fuel cleaning out the crude inside the engine. It also blocks the fuel filter with a variety of debris.  But best to stick to the big brand fuels in my opinion and not use the supermarket stuff, just to be safe, especially as Esso etc usually doesn't cost any more than supermarket stuff. That may depend of course on the area you live in but often Esso is cheaper than supermarket stuff where I live. Yeah...I know. Amazing isn't it! Good luck and well done for posting this as it does highlight an area of maintenance often overlooked. 

[Dubboy]

Hi estateman

the manifold was quite bad with carbon build up , hopefully I can get it done this weekend .

the red seal is new so would I need to change it again?

Also what would I need to remove to get to the bolts for the manifold , because it looked quite tight when I looked after getting the egr off.

cheers

[RichardatWakefield]

Dubboy, what oil are you using, and are you using any fuel additive? I had one of these engines in a Mk 1 Fabia, using Millers oil and Millers fuel additive, and catalyst-core removed at about 60,000 miles, also had the engine re-mapped from 75bhp (actual 79 on the rolling-road) up to 99.9bhp, was getting 76.5mpg all summer (flattish area, taking it gently, using the extra torque) and got to 850miles before the low fuel light and bleeper went off!  Winter mpg around 69. Started getting exhaust fumes in cabin, and engine warning light at times just before I sold it, probably needed the same EGR treatment as yours!

 

Is your handbrake freeing-off fully? On a firm flat surface, driver door open and out of gear, release handbrake, can you easily start it rolling either direction?

 

Now with the 4-cylinder 1.9 version of the same PD diesel in a Roomster, been getting 60-62mpg, now re-mapped and stiffer front-suspension console arm bushes and re-tracked, hoping for nearer 70mpg!! Not de-catted, but again using Millers oil and fuel additive, and handbrake cables replaced, and the re-mappers (Darkside Developments in Barnsley) recommended I use a plain bog-standard paper element air filter. (They reckon that the oil-impregnated ones can deposit oil on the fine wire of the MassAirFlow sensor.)

[Dubboy]

Hi

I am using of the top of my head 5w30 halfords oil no additive s,

I checked the heat coming off of the wheels after a journey yesterday, the rears were warm where as the front burnt my finger on the bolt after about 5secs holding it there.

Maybe I have a dragging pads at the front I shall check when I get a chance

cheers

[GeneralPurpose]

As long as the oil from halford is at least 507 vw spec and make sure it's fully syn not semi syn, then that's ok. If it isn't change it immediately as the cams will go west very quickly. The 507 VW spec oil has a special extreme pressure agent in it to protect the cams. Yes I would take off the egr and you don't need to renew the gasket ring again, it should be fine. 

Edited 21 July, 2014 by Estate Man

[Dubboy]

The oil is vw 504/507 standard so were cool,do you think the fuel filter could be causing poor mpg .

It was changed at 20000 supposedly ,which is a bit strange because in the service book it say it should be changed at 60k?

Cheers