XC70: Engine Xc70 D5 2011 EGR clean

[Steven9233]

Come across Volvo Sweden on YouTube , really helpful videos by a guy who works on his own cars. Followed the easy step by step guide on cleaning EGR valve.
Heard a lot of people say EGR valve should be cleaned every two years or so ? Also seen somewhere that Volvo recommend every 50k . Therefore I decided to have a look at mine . See pics attached , I believe well worth doing and relatively easy. I was surprised how much coke there was due to the low mileage, for note the car has full service history from new at Volvo and recently specialists , AKA regular oil changes , -Now has 62k on clock and has never had EGR cleaned before . I cleaned it in situ with carb cleaner sprayed onto the rag then rubbed clean , after 15 rags or so the result was good, the throttle body gasket can be reused once apparently, if you have couple hours spare would recommend doing. I would imagine some higher mileage cars are in much worse condition. Take a look at pictures , took me around 2 hours for the time accessing the valve after removing throttle body and cleaning the deposits off. No noticeable difference in drive afterwards , just peace of mind knowing it’s cleaned and will worry about it in 50k time . Thought this maybe of interest to some.

[Kev0607]

You done a great job there. I've been looking at videos on YouTube to do the same thing on my S80 with the D5 engine. I imagine mine will be much worse than yours, as I don't know if it has ever been cleaned & it has nearly 103,000 miles. I've had the car nearly a year now, so I do want to tackle it at some point.

[Steven9233]

The one thing I was careful not to do was spray any cleaner into the intake , this was on the advice of the chap on video who seems to know exactly what he’s talking about. Volvo Sweden EGR clean , type that into YouTube , he offers the best step by step guide .
As mentioned the gasket can be reused once . Good luck

[Kev0607]

Thanks for the advice. I've watched a few of his videos...They're very detailed & show the job in hand clearly. I've even watched his videos just for the sake of it! He certainly knows how to look after his car, that's for sure.

[Tatsfield]

Two things occurred to me.

Firstly that Volvo didn't offer me the cleaning of the throttle body and EGR valve and I suspect that unless I do something about it the combustion product contamination will build until the engine running suffers.

Secondly the modifications that Evgenie does in this video and in the associated video are things that Volvo should have done when assembling the car. The omission of the heater pipe mounting bracket, which is an available Volvo part, is astounding. They actually designed a bracket to stop vibration and then didn't fit it but held it on inventory so that they could fit it when there was vibration damage! The wiring looms are obviously skimped as they could have wound them in tape to prevent cable insulation wear leading to complex electrical faults which are very difficult to diagnose. I know, I've owned Peugeots where simple wiring faults in the CD player can cause problems throughout the car! Also the rusting components for which Bosch actually make water proof seals that Volvo don't fit. I'd always seen Volvo as automotive perfectionists and accepted their higher prices which I'd assumed covered their engineering OCD, but it seems that this is not the case and we are indebted to Evgenie for showing us the neglected areas under the bonnet.

For those who didn't know, Evgenie is the guy who sells the OBD socket plug-in module which closes the tailgate and offers other control functions not supplied by Volvo

[volvoski]

My wife’s XC70 is nine years old and had 186,000 miles on the clock. Never had to clean the EGR. Our garage says it’s all running fine. It does very regular long motorway journeys and works for its keep hard.
They tell me that too many short journeys are what clogs these up.

[Steven9233]

I thought exactly the same ! Actually developing a fix but not applying it , also missing bracket on part of the cover ? Love my Volvo and it has many many pros vs negatives but in all honestly , open the bonnet on my wife’s 11 year old Honda Accord and it’s immediately obvious who the supreme engineers are . No weak looms or missing brackets that’s a guarantee.

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by volvoski

My wife’s XC70 is nine years old and had 186,000 miles on the clock. Never had to clean the EGR. Our garage says it’s all running fine. It does very regular long motorway journeys and works for its keep hard.
They tell me that too many short journeys are what clogs these up.

Indeed. The longer journeys help the fuel to be burned properly, as the engine is working at full temperature etc. Shorter journeys, or stop/start ones mean the fuel isn't getting burned & you end up with the soot building up.

I only do short journeys in my car, most of which are stop/start. That's why I want to inspect my EGR when I get chance & give it a good clean. It does need a drive on the motorway also come to think of it, but I imagine that won't clean too much of the soot if the EGR/pipes are badly blocked?

For those that have cleaned their EGR's, how often do you do the job usually?

[Oak]

Hi Steven. I also want to clean mine as I’m getting awful performance, poor economy and also it’s erroring in ViDA. Mine is a 2008 D5244T4

I’ll try and follow the video, but did you come across any issues? Any particularly difficult moments?

Many thanks

Originally Posted by Steven9233

Come across Volvo Sweden on YouTube , really helpful videos by a guy who works on his own cars. Followed the easy step by step guide on cleaning EGR valve.
Heard a lot of people say EGR valve should be cleaned every two years or so ? Also seen somewhere that Volvo recommend every 50k . Therefore I decided to have a look at mine . See pics attached , I believe well worth doing and relatively easy. I was surprised how much coke there was due to the low mileage, for note the car has full service history from new at Volvo and recently specialists , AKA regular oil changes , -Now has 62k on clock and has never had EGR cleaned before . I cleaned it in situ with carb cleaner sprayed onto the rag then rubbed clean , after 15 rags or so the result was good, the throttle body gasket can be reused once apparently, if you have couple hours spare would recommend doing. I would imagine some higher mileage cars are in much worse condition. Take a look at pictures , took me around 2 hours for the time accessing the valve after removing throttle body and cleaning the deposits off. No noticeable difference in drive afterwards , just peace of mind knowing it’s cleaned and will worry about it in 50k time . Thought this maybe of interest to some.

[Steven9233]

Hi, no issues , was pretty easy , the only awkward part was the bottom clip on large hose connected to throttle body , the screw/hex head is facing the wrong way ! It faced down towards bottom of engine ! Obviously fitted by Frank spencer at Volvo factory . When refitted I installed it facing up so next time I could reach easily. Honestly though really easy and essential job looking at all the gunk I got out . If you have an error code I’d imagine yours is pretty much 100% blocked . From now on I will be checking mine every year or so as it’s so easy just need to order a new throttle body gasket the second time. Be interested to see how yours looked as it’s thrown a code . Good luck