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1.9dCi Engine - EGR Removal, Cleaning and Installation with Pics

266K views 118 replies 65 participants last post by  bson 
#1 ·
Hello fellow D.I.Y mechanics:d

The aim of this thread is to hopefully give you enough information to remove, clean and re-install the EGR Valve on a 1.9dCi Engine.

My Car:- Renault Laguna 1.9dCi Dynamique 120Bhp
Difficulty:- **
Time:- 1-3 Hrs
Items Required:-
- Ratchet Set
- Medium flatblade screwdriver
- Large flatblade screwdriver
- Pick / Scribe
- Carb cleaner
- Gloves
- Overalls / Old Clothes
- Rags
- Old / New tootbrush

Time is subject to how stubborn the EGR is to get out and also how long you spend cleaning it up.

Before we start the information that follows is a narrative of how i went about cleaning my EGR and should you wish to use it its completley your own discretion and responsibilty.

Ok lets get to it start by disconnecting the negative terminal from the battery.

Then remove the plastic engine covers secured in place by 3 bolts place to one side.



TIP:- Place the bolts back on the threads and finger tight them reducing the risk of misplacing them.

OK now thats out the way locate the black tubing on the right hand side of the engine going into the inlet manifold.



slacken off the jubilee clip enough to remove the pipe off the butterfly body move it out the way as best you can to give you room to get at the EGR.

There she is that cylindrical looking thing with the white clip and wires coming out of it



to remove the wiring clip using the picture for orientation on the top right hand side of the connector you should see the securing clip lift that up andf then pull the connector off.

Ok get the ratchet ready and remove the 3 retaining bolts which secure the EGR once removed you
should be able to freely pull away the solenoid portion of the EGR if it dosn't come straight away give it a wiggle.



NOTE:- My picture shows my solenoid covered in oil as opposed to carbon build up this is due to the
fact i only had my EGR out about 4 weeks ago for cleaning and yes it was covered in carbon build up
this recent photo only taken this morning is due to the fact my turbo blew up on sunday.

Ok so using the carb cleaner spray the solenoid and leave to soak in whilst that is soaking in
turn to the other portion of the EGR still inset into the inlet manifold.


Using a Medium flatblade screwdriver gently manipulate it between the inlet manifold and the EGR
and start to gently jimmy the EGR out



As the Medium blade runs out of leverage i upped it toa larger blade and continued the EGR slowly progressing out of the inlet manifold i did use a hammer aswell to help it on its way by placing the screwdriver at angle and gentley tapping it out when the EGR got about half way out then got my mitts round it wriggled it it out the rest of the way.



NOTE:- It will be coated in soot and carbon build up and will be quite stubborn to get out mine certinly was when i did mine but that was 4 weeks ago when i pulled it out to clean it just keep slowly leavering it out and spray some Carb clean on it to try and help it on its way.

Also note in the picture the metal gasket i found it was re usable providing you did not damage it on removal.

Give it a good coating of Carb cleaner to soak in and start cleaning the solenoid portion.
Use the Pick and scribe to get rid off largq build ups of carbon and use a rags and a stiff bristled toothbrush to clean some of the lighter build ups.

when you are satisfied you have cleaned both parts of the EGR up spray the inlet manifold where the EGR slots into with the carb cleaner as that will be pretty caked up in there aswell using your toothbrush and rags.

Installation

All of the opposite of which you have just done

Place gasket over EGR and slot back into inlet manifold offer up solenoid portion and hold in place while you re-insert the 3 retaining bolts finger tight then get your ratchet to tighten them off 5 white knuckles did it for me but your call.

Reconnect wiring clip

Connect black tube to inlet manifold butterly housing
Re tighten jubilee clip

Refit plastic engine covers

Re-connect negative terminal on battery

Ensure you have all your tools and none are left in the engine area

Fire it up!

NOTE:- You may have to get car connected to a VAG com to remove the error code as a result of carrying out this job but the car still drives i didnt bother with mine.

It might be worth noting while you are working on the EGR to check out the inlet outlet pipes and airbox pipes going to the Turbo checking
the pipes and the surrounding areas for any oil that shouldnt be there as mine started getting the hessitation upon accelerating which led me to
clean the EGR out guess what 4 weeks later and one blown turbo i did start to get the tell tale signs just wasnt expecting that to happen so definatly check for signs of your turbo goin and listen out for signs it may be going.

Well i hope this helps

If you got any questions or feel i have missed something out drop me a message and ill update

Otherwise

Enjoy

:mechanic: Now where did i put that bolt???
 
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#5 ·
Help?! Re: 1.9dCi Engine - EGR Removal, Cleaning and Installation with Pics

Hi everyone,

I could do with some advice, I have a 1.9 DCi Laguna 2. I'm fairly competent with cars and decided to have a look at the EGR valve, clean it up, that sort of thing.

When removing it, it was seized solid and a nightmare to remove. As the picture show above it comes off in two parts, the first came off no probs but the second, the component that slides in to the manifold was stuck so solid I snapped a couple of the mounts.

With some effort I managed to get it out and it was filthy, absolutely manky, full of gunk and grime. This lead me to remove the air inlet gate located just above, as I suspected inside this was so clogged up I doubt any gasses could have come through from the EGR.

After giving it a good clean out and ensuring the gasses could flow freely, I set about putting it back together.

As the internal part would be held in place with the three bolts of the outer I was unconcerned about the mountings that had snapped. Everything went back in its place and it was held up tightly.

Initially when I started the engine I got black smoke, but I put this down to cleaning the manifold and some gunk getting into the engine. Once this cleared I set off to drive, I noticed the warning lights straight away as was to be expected due to the EGR valve being removed (if I'm wrong about that let me know).

Now it feels sluggish and the MPG has dropped significantly (30-33 mpg). There is no power above 3000rpm, in 5th or 6th it struggles to accelerate, top speed is around 80 MPH

Could the ill fitted EGR be the problem? It seems to be exactly where it should be to me but it could be faulty?

I'm also worried about how I could remove the inner part as there is no longer any thing to get a purchase on and I cant get a screw driver in to lever it. Any advice with this one would be appreciated.

I've got the chance of a manifold and EGR froma breaking car, how difficult would it be replacing the whole manifold?

Any advice greatly recieved
 
#8 · (Edited)
simmosworld.....

the problem is always access...
if you take your time and make a note of where all the bolts go, keep them in little groups.
just make sure that all the old gasket residue is removed and spotlessly clean before reassembling the manifold. a rub with some fine paper just to clean any stubborn gasket from the faces.
just plan for plenty of time, no rushing to go shopping at tesco's later on...if youve got air leaking in past the broken egr fittings then you will have excess air inside the manifold, this will be picked up by the computer and listed as a fault on the emissions side of the system.
hope this helps. also give the new manifold a good inspection and take time to give it a good clean.
bit more time will give you a better job.
good luck.:d
 
#10 ·
are yes...thats the difficult bit...if its stuck its probably gummed up to buggery...pardon the phrase..
its going to take some prising with a scraper edge, if you get into both sides. then attack it from one side and soon as you have a bit of movement then go to the other side.. if it rocks from side to side without any progress, then change position on the sides of the piece. ie. 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock. if not then try 9 and 3 o'clock.good luck, be carefull if you are using a screw driver it can damage the face of the valve...also if you have a blow lamp you could try heating around the outside of the unit just on the manifold not on the egr valve. you really only want to heat the manifold so it expands to help release the valve. just take care not set fire to the car ;0) good luck......
 
#12 ·
Excellent thread. Very helpful and easy to follow.

I replaced my egr valve top (the bit that has the electrical connection and not the bit that needs cleaning) because after several cleaning attempts still had hesitation at 2k revs. As a result my "check engine light" came on but the car ran better than ever. Smooth low down power and all around easier driving. I put the old bit back on and the light went out.

Would this happen with any new egr top or complete new egr or is the one I used faulty? It was second hand but worked fine on the other car. Would the light go out if I left it a while? I did test drive it for about 10 miles.
 
#13 ·
Great instructions, worked a charm - thanks Normski84! Just wanted to mention a problem I had in case anyone else also does.

After cleaning, there was not much power until ~3000rpm (where there was lots) and lots of white smoke above ~2000rpm. For me this cleared up after a few journeys and everything was back to normal. Other threads suggest it's probably the ECU adjusting its parameters, which sounds likely (in my case the channels into the EGR valve were almost completely blocked).
 
#15 ·
Hi Guys, i have just replaced my egr valve for a new one on my meganeII 1,9dci, and now does not give full power, like the valve isnt opening also says check injection ,and a number of code faults , do i need to get the ecu reprogrammed because of the new part , also will i damage the engine running it like this ,
 
#16 ·
hi all,

this problem is very similar to mine, so i will give it a try,im hoping its easy as im a complete novice with cars but hopefully it will sort out the problem. Something else that i have wrong with my laguna is that when its ticking over it cuts out,unless my idle speed is kept above 2000rpm,so i have to rev the guts out of it when stuck in any kind of traffic ?
any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks all :d
 
#18 ·
Did this and right enough, it was caked in soot, sludge etc. Gave it all a good clean, and the thing above it with the butterfly in it, and put it nicely together (BTW, mine was held in with three hex nuts). BUT only a little bit of difference. Still jumps a bit when at low revs & slow speed. Does this mean the valve/solenoid needs replacing.

Thanks again for a very clear instruction page. Maybe it should be a sticky.

Kev
 
#19 ·
Great post. I was in France when black smoke started to pour out the exhaust. I removed and cleaned the EGR as per your advice. The smoke has certainly reduced dramatically but is still there.
I managed to get home and looked at it again. What I noticed was the butterfly part of it does not seem to move. Does this only open/close when driving? or can i test it to ensure this is not the problem. I am now at a loss.
 
#21 ·
firstly sorry for hijacking this thread. iv got a 2002 dci 140k seems fine a little smoke if i hammer it but meturning 45mpg combined runs/idles/pulls fine but i noticed a few oil drops on the drive, bought it a few weeks ago. i located the source of the leak to be the area in picture 2 of this thread slightly off centre bellow and to the left of the big jubile clip theres a circle section with a pin that lifts un and down with a connecting arm, on this car it looks a bit oily. on my car its full of oil in this area. obviously its not normal. i read that it could be turbo seals failing. is this likely to be the cause? many thanks
 
#26 ·
seen this before, the turbo does let a bit of oil into the air intake system, most diesels with a bit of milage do it...i have a friend with a skoda superb 2.otdi. only 43,000 on the clock, it also seeps a bit of oil into the air system.
i would start keeping tabs on your oil consuption. once a week and see if it consumes a lot of oil.
most diesel engines lose a bit of oil, but not as much as it looks.
i did how ever remove the body on which this thing is bolted to and order a new o ring from renault.
there was still traces of oil on the next service but no where near as much as the first time i saw the car.
good luck.
 
#22 ·
Just put the Lag II back together after changing the fuel filter and cleaning the EGR valve.

The fuel filter was pretty straightforward after I got the right bloody one as the first motor factor I went to gave me the wrong one!

The EGR valve was a different story! It took me a while to work out that the tang on the metal gasket had to be bent back to reveal the slot into which you put a medium screw driver to prise off the solenoid. Once I had that, it was still a bit of a struggle to get the valve body out but I managed it.

It clean up pretty well and went back together OK. It all started up OK and there were no warning lights.

We’ll see if that cures the intermittent glow plug warning light.

One thing I did notice was that the inlet manifold downstream of the butterfly was very gunked up. I did my best to remove as much of this as I could but there was a lot of it there which can’t be good.

Anyone any experience of using those cleaning sprays to degunk such things?

Don’t fancy removing the inlet manifold to clean it on a 100k + car J

A


 
#23 ·
Hi Norm

This was a great thread i bought a 1.9dci trafic and its all the same on the engine. But when i took off the egr first part (solenoid) with the electrical leads go to the gasket was between this and the part that inserts into the manifold. I was under the impression that this gasket had to go between the manifold and the flange of the part of the egr that goes into the maifold, then the solenoid part just bolts it all together. it looks like that to me in your photo where the gasket goes over the egr before its inserted into the manifold.

Can anyone confirm if this is correct as i got a brand new one on the way with new gasket

Thanks

Tony
 
#25 ·
I thought so the bloody idiots who owned the van before me took it out damaged the flange for the part that goes into manifold but when replacing it put the gasket between that and solenoid part. thought it was a bit strange. no wonder i had issues on the returm journey home and smoking like a banchy Thanks for the quick reply

Tony
 
#27 ·
your welcome, when you've got it out, take a look at the crap that builds in the manifold....if you can spend a long cleaning it out. as long as possible. the cleaner the better and the air flows easier through the manifold. some would argue, but when it was put together at renault it was clean.
good luck.:d
 
#28 ·
Re: Help?! Re: 1.9dCi Engine - EGR Removal, Cleaning and Installation with Pics

sounds like its stuck in position or the solnoid has failed. i done mine without removing when mine had no power black smoke , i took off the return pipe and sprayed loads of wd40 inside left it 20 mins got a product called seafoam and poured around 1/4 pint directly into the fuel filter , started up the car rev for 30 seconds lots of smoke then sorted i brought a blanking plate and have now blanked off egr car is now very quick and my average mpg jumped from 32 to 37.8 mpg and passed emisions test on mot.
 
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