Everyone talks about cleaning the EGR valve, but a search for instructions just brings up a bunch of threads on the elimination of the whole EGR system.

Do I need to remove anything else to be able to unbolt the EGR? It looks like a pain in the butt to remove from such a tight space. Is it just the 2 bolts on one side and 3 on the other? Do I need to dissemble the EGR at all to clean it?

Sorry if these are dumb questions, but I've never had it off before. Thanks!


REASON for questions: Error 71 and surging idle when brakes applied

 

There's 2 parts to the EGR you can clean. There's a piece that attaches to the back of the intake plenum, which is just 2 bolts, and there's also a little "tower" between the intake plenum and the head. You'll have to remove the bit on the back of the intake before you can get the piece off of the head.

If you're looking at the head from the passenger fender, you'll see 3 bolts: two on the side and one on the bottom, almost like a Y pattern.

Here's an image I found on google images from another yotatech post.



Be careful with what you clean the parts with. There's a rubber diaphragm in the EGR valve that can dry out and crack if you use regular parts cleaner.