V70 D5 Just cleaned out my EGR mixer pipe - jesus!!
 

Can't believe how much gunk was accumulated in the thing.

I dread to think how messy the top of the engine is.

Here's some pics anyway.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4068/...c210372194.jpg

The mixer pipe is the metal 90deg pipe in the right of the image. It was well caked in slimey black sooty cr@p.

Also the inlet into the top of the engine was thick with the same gunk.

Prior to removal
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4022/...c187ca6ed1.jpg

After removal
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4037/...d9a5b1068b.jpg

The EGR inlet hole (I think)
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4040/...c122d7140b.jpg
This is the common point for people to blank off the EGR.

And after a good clean up
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4055/...29f15eea87.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4032/...dfa8694067.jpg

Cleaned it up using carb cleaner and a LOT of kitchen roll. If you're going to do it invest in some latex gloves as it's a very messy job. Also tried as best as I could to clean out the top of engine inlet pipe and managed to scoop out a lot of mess with my fingers then cleaned out with carb cleaner and kitchen roll. It would really mean taking the top engine cover off to clean out properly but this would take a lot longer and mean messing about with the fuel lines, couldn't be bothered with that.

Easy job, just need a screw driver for the jubilee clips, takes an hour max.

The car seems to run a little smoother now and throttle response has improved, not a hugely noticable difference but it can't be good for the car to have all that horrible gunky cr@p in there.

For info my car is a 2002 V70 D5 on 103k.

The question is, would blanking my EGR valve prevent this from building up in future? I'm tempted to leave it be as the car runs fine as is.

Blanking the EGR would prevent the sooty exhaust gases from getting in there so yes it would stay alot cleaner. The issue is whether your ECU would register an error code due to the blanked off EGR.

I used to have a BMW 330D that I blanked off the EGr and I had no issues with error codes, but that is of course a completely different car.

If you consider cleaning it as a yearly service regimen then you could probably skip blanking it and stay on top of the gunge build up.

did mine last weekend and just as bad as yours, as said you may have issues blanking it of and doing it yearly will not be as bad.
mike

I'm going to leave it alone, it's not broke and all that :)

Amazing how badly these things crud up though, I wasn't expecting that much!

Hi,
Can you notice any difference in the way the car drives since you cleaned the EGR out? Does it pull better or less smoke.....? I'm amazed how much crap had built up!
Cheers,
Nobby

The difference is not that pronounced to be honest but it does seem to pull more consistently under hard acceleration. It also seems to start easier, not that it was bad before, fires up after a couple of turns of the engine rather than 3 or 4 and throttle respose seems to have improved.

I think some people have seen an improvement in MPG but it's a bit early for me to see that.

Ultimately, if your car has any mileage on it this pipe WILL be full of horrible nasty sheeiite. It makes sense that it would be better off not being there.

Dead easy job, just a bit messy.

Just notice. This is not the EGR valve itself but the mixer plenum pipe and associated pipework.

I would imagine it's only worth messing with the valve itself if you are getting error codes?

Take care guys, that stuff is highly carciogenic :thumbs_up:

Hi Dave,

I don't want to worry you but look a bit further up the inlet tract. That is in the inlet plenum. There are other posts about this. I have a 2002 V70 and at 105k my EGR valve was all blocked up and the inlet plenum was the same. I was horrified as it looked like the old "black death" syndrome. Anyway I cleaned it all out (and yes you can re-use the injector pipes) and blanked off the egr. I have now done 163k and the inlet is still spotless and no more crap is going into my engine which is still sweet, drives well and passes MOTs no problem. No alarms or warnings at all.

Dave

Showing my Ignorance here people, and anyway I hate TLA's
What does EGR stand for please?