This weekend im planning to remove the egr valve and inlet manifold on my 1.9 tdi octy.A few months ago, I removed the intake pipe and was amazed at the amount of crud in the egr valve.I have all the cleaners ready and also the old clothes.When I have cleaned them out, can I stop the valve from opening on the egr valve ,by blanking off the vacuum pipe and the stub or will this cause problems. I see a lot of people have done this on the larger engines ,but would this work on the 90 bhp alh engine ok?.I would like eventually to replace the valve with the straight through pipe as i have also done the ccv mod with a catch tank. Any advice please, regards Dave.

you'll get a light on the dash if you just blank off the pipe. I'm going to clean out the EGR valve on mine as soon as I actually get a chance to do it - the new gaskets have been in the boot for about 6 months now...

Looks like a bit of a pig to get the inlet manifold off on mine (110bhp version) I don't know if the 90bhp version is a bit easier to remove or if it is the same, a few pictures would be handy please. My Haynes manual has a typical "undo the bolts and remove the inlet manifold" statement but it looks like a pain as the intake pipe to the turbo and various other bits are attached to the manifold or get in the way.

Bump , anyone else?

I believe you can turn the EGR valve down using vag-com which won't light up the CEL. With regards to stripping the inlet manifold down to clean out, I looked todo it on my Octi this time last year, I got as far as replacing the EGR valve as mine wasn't that grimey, I was so glad as it looks like a pig of a job.

Good luck.

Well yesterday I removed the egr valve and cleaned all the gunge from the inside. Idecided not to do the inlet manifold as it looks a pig of a job to do so scraped all the carbon and oil sludge from the egr valve an kept blasting it with wynns carb cleaner:thumbup:It has come up like new and hopefully will run a bit better for a while until it cakes up again:thumbdwn:.All told it took about an hour and a half from start to finish , the only thing you have to remember is to remove the two allen bolts for the recirc. valve or you cannot get to the bottom bolt on the valve.

Removing intake manifold isn't too tricky, recently did the job myself. Trust me well worth the effort as mine was really gummed up. Once you have the EGR valve off its only 6x6mm allen bolts for the manifold and a couple of nuts to remove heat shield.

A good tool kit is a must with a couple of universal socket connectors and you will be fine, allow around 90 mins to remove and the same to refit.

Re blanking off the EGR I recently discovered a post on a Golf forum, just disconnect the vac hose that attaches to the mushroom valve on top of the EGR and pop a bolt in the hose to seal it. This stops the EGR from opening. I've done this and it works fine and no warning light on the dash. Seems to accelerate smoother now.

I agree its not that bad taking it off just a bit fiddly getting to the bolts at the back from what I remember, my manifold was full of crud so its well worth it, I have got some pics if I can find a way of posting them. cheers - Stuart.