EGR valves

[Ben90]

My 2003 FSI's had an ongoing issue with the EGR valve. It last threw up an engine management light at around 4 years old and it's done it again recently. The garage I take it to normally solve the problem by cleaning the exhaust manifold and the throttle body, which gets rid of it for a few years and keeps her running well. I'm assuming coke buildup or something is causing the problem, more prevalent in diesels I understand, anyway it's an ongoing cost to deal with it. It's even baffled the Stealers, who had it in diagnostics for almost a day an couldn't find the exact fault (and luckily didn't charge!)

Fortunately it's never been a real nightmare, it's never made the car run in limp mode but that light doesn't half bug me and would be annoying to explain when/if I sell up.

Anyway, I'd like to consider blanking it. Pros? Cons? Process? Are there guides knocking around? From what I understand the car can run fine without it and with minimal loss of MPG, and it actually helps to stop various pipes getting coked up?

Share your EGR stories people

[JonnyBCK]

i currently have the EML on because of this useless piece o s**t. keep getting the code for EGR system regulation range exceeded. looks like its not doing whatever its supost to. if you blank it off you will prevent the carbon build up in the inlet manifold however this will also cause longer warm up time and well in diesels anyway the emmisions go up but it will still pass an MOT so ive heard. on the diesels it can be turned down via vagcom to reduce the amount of exhaust gases going back into the engine. once mines fixed i think i will do that with a blank

quite alot of threads on this subject on seatcupra.net mate check it out

[Ben90]

Yeah same story here, no less than 2 hours out of the garage and the EML is back on I've not run a vagcom on it yet but I'm pretty certain that's what the problem is.

Yeah i've heard it can be turned down or off completely (?) May look into that if I can't find a blanking kit.

I'll have a look on seatcupra mate thanks!

[g__humm]

They can be mapped out yes

[JonnyBCK]

i believe i read somewhere that on the BLT pd130 u cannot map it out what you can do is map out the EML totally so you have no warning whatsoever. i dont fancy doing that because this means u have no indication if something else is wrong.
if you have the same as me Ben ive had a quick look into it, there are a few possible causes:
1. the vacumm hose to the egr could be leaking.
2. the diaphram that operates the valve could be gunked up or broken.
3. the valve itself could be chocked with dirt or broken.
4. the maf sensor could be given a false reading which will through up this alarm.

i think personnally im just gonna buy another egr complete and a blanking plate with a small hole in it and then turn the thing down with vagcom.

[g__humm]

i believe i read somewhere that on the BLT pd130 u cannot map it out what you can do is map out the EML totally so you have no warning whatsoever. i dont fancy doing that because this means u have no indication if something else is wrong.
if you have the same as me Ben ive had a quick look into it, there are a few possible causes:
1. the vacumm hose to the egr could be leaking.
2. the diaphram that operates the valve could be gunked up or broken.
3. the valve itself could be chocked with dirt or broken.
4. the maf sensor could be given a false reading which will through up this alarm.

i think personnally im just gonna buy another egr complete and a blanking plate with a small hole in it and then turn the thing down with vagcom.

It's not the egr that gives the fault code it's the asv (anti shudder valve) cos this is electrically operated rather than vacuum this part can not be mapped out you have to leave it plugged in and hidden away some where. If you leave it unplugged you may find that it caps your fuel at the higher rpm range. But the egr can be completely removed and mapped out.

[Ben90]

Or just mapped out and left there? If the anti shudder valve is part of the EGR and operated by a vacuum, would it still work passively and help to reduce shuddering when I switch the engine off? Or am I way out of the ball park?

I don't fancy mapping out the EML completely for the same reasons. I've got a cheap vagcom cable so I could still check for faults but I wouldn't be aware of urgent ones until I check, and the main reason I want to do any of this is to make the car less bothersome to maintain

It's all been dealt with recently, the EGR and throttle body have been cleaned for a second time in the car's life so technically it's running fine, I'm also running it on 98 to help keep it clean, the specialist is suspecting a minor ECU fault throwing up the EML, since he followed it back as far as he could. Nobody likes an EML though, and I don't have it in me to get the black tape out But mainly it's the frankly avoidable repeated maintenance and gradual loss of power.