In the last few months I've been CEL free. For a while I had the EGR code but after a cleaning of the tubing the code was gone. Now I have the CEL code again and my mpg has dropped to 21 in town and 24.5 on the highway.

Can I just clean the damn EGR out again or is this something that needs to be replaced? I don't want to spend 240$ on an EGR if I don't have to.

 

I would try cleaning it again, you might get lucky one more time. If i remember right there is an egr modulator that controls the vacuum going to the egr, and they can go bad and either send to much vacuum to the egr or not enough, i don`t know how to check this part but you could probably find out in the FSM

 

The last time I cleaned it I used a bore brush (copper) out of a riffle cleaning kit and a lot of brake clean, it looked spotless. I do have the sensor on the top near the rear of the intake plenum and I've been told that that thing can go bad after a few thousand miles. I have 220,145 on the motor, could that little sensor be the problem?

 

Its very possible that sensor could be bad. Ive seen two types of sensors on 22RE engines, one is the vacuum modulator that has 2-4 vacuum hoses going to it, and the other sensor that ive seen is like temperature probe with two wires comming out of it, if thats the style you have, try removing it and cleaning it and see if that helps at all.