Do I Or Don't I?

[Smeeagain]

My 2004 e53 is going into the garage for a few bits and pieces this week- I asked the guy to clean out the egr as it hasn't been touched in 190k miles - he said he would happily do it but was I really sure as perhaps "if it ain't broke don't fix it " may be the best approach as it hasn't been problematic at all so far - what do you think ?
Smee

[Don Coffey]

Forgive my ignorance but I don't know what an egr is.  If it did start to play up, would this disable the car or just effect it's performance?  If trouble with the egr could disable the car then I would consider doing the job, however if it's something that you could carry until able to get repaired then leave well alone.

Don

[Horizon]

They only become problematic if they havnt been cleaned, so it's preventative maintenance .
You could say don't change the engine oil because it hasn't siezed up yet.
I did mine , easy 1 hr job, as it was t that dirty I didn't notice any difference but something's that gives you
Peace of mind.

[Don Coffey]

[quote="Horizon"]
They only become problematic if they havnt been cleaned, so it's preventative maintenance .
You could say don't change the engine oil because it hasn't siezed up yet.
I did mine , easy 1 hr job, as it was t that dirty I didn't notice any difference but something's that gives you
Peace of mind.
[/quote]

Yeah, fair point, prevention is better.

Don

[Horizon]

[quote="Don Coffey"]
Forgive my ignorance but I don't know what an egr is.  If it did start to play up, would this disable the car or just effect it's performance?  If trouble with the egr could disable the car then I would consider doing the job, however if it's something that you could carry until able to get repaired then leave well alone.

Don
[/quote]
EGR valve is the Exhaust Gas regeneration /recirculating valve, it's designed to fill your inlet manifold with black tar like carbon crap. ( joke )
It opens up via a vacuum pipe to allow exhaust gas to renter the engine, it's part of the emissions system. They can get coked up and stick, which causes idling and low Rev torque problems .

[JamieX5]

Yeh just clean it out. They are vacuum operated on e53s so you can't really damage them or do any harm at all by cleaning it out.

[Smeeagain]

So could it being clogged up cause any of the issues I have with fumes coming into the cabin?

[Smeeagain]

hellooooooo ?

[SMOKEY]

It shouldn't be causing fumes unless something is leaking.

EGR is just part of the way the engine manages emissions. It recirculates a portion of the exhaust fumes back through the combustion process. But as was mentioned, it is vacuum operated - so when they stick open - you get idle issues.

Clean it out, then block it off. You'll get performance benefits and avoid continuing to fill your manifold with soot and crap.  Note, there are suggestions that EGR does have a function in keeping down cylinder temps, so do your own research on that and make a call, but plenty of people do it and have enjoyed the results.

[X5Sport]

[quote="Don Coffey"]
Forgive my ignorance but I don't know what an egr is.

Don
[/quote]

Exhaust Gas Recirc.  Emissions control and can be bypassed.

[Smeeagain]

Spoke with the guy at the garage - he is happy to do it (after all the customer is paying) - his point about not doing it was he knows that I do almost exclusively motorway mileage and even at 190k miles he is not expecting it to be clogged up much.
Will report back on his findings ......

[chelsea]

EGR valves are generally considered to cause the premature death of many new diesel engines, they basically take a percentage of expelled exhaust gas and pass it back through the inlet manifold, if the inlet manifold has butterflies in it then eventually they will gum up and seize and on many cars this means a new inlet manifold is needed.
I have personally had lots of experience with Vauxhall/Fiat engines and the last inlet manifold I tackled was at least 3-4mm thick in carbon (80,000 miles), some of it gunk but quite a lot of it already set hard,on that occasion the butteflies were saved luckily but the majority need new manifolds.
Best thing to do with an EGR valve is to fit a bi-pass/blank it off etc.....im doing mine next week and also removing and cleaning the manifold out.....purely cleaning the EGR will not make any difference to the gunk build up in the inlet manifold.