You’ve most likely already heard about the popular EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not always appreciated by car owners because it has a tendency to cause more concerns than anything else… Actually, dependent on the use you are going to make of your car, it can become congested and cause you a lot of concerns. If this is the situation, you are most likely concerned about how to clean the EGR valve of your Audi A3 ? Don’t worry, we’ve made this content page to help you with this process. To do so, we will initially check out the role of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your Audi A3 can cause and to finish the part that will most likely interest you the most, how to clean the EGR valve Audi A3?
How to Clean your Audi A3 EGR Valve: Role and Operation
Goal of the EGR valve
The EGR valve of your car has been added to diesel engines principally to reduce pollution emitted by automobiles and to meet EURO requirements on Audi A3 . It will consequently control the quality of exhaust gas output and reduce toxic particles, mainly Nitrogen Oxide.
Operation of the EGR valve
Before we learn how to clean the EGR valve on your Audi A3 , we will take a look at how it operates. As described just before, its mission is to clean the exhaust gases, so it will be placed at the engine outlet, thanks to a valve, it will be able to return the unburned exhaust gases to the engine for a second burn which will reduce all unburned toxic particles. It will operate mainly at low speed because at high speed the combustion is enough to burn all these gases.
How to clean your Audi A3 EGR valve: Identifying faults
The EGR valve, nevertheless very beneficial to limit the pollution emissions of your Audi A3 , will sadly tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will build up in its mechanism, which will inevitably risk blocking the functions of the valve, until entirely blocking the engine motor, here are the symptoms that a faulty EGR valve on your Audi A3 can provoke:
- Motor light on
- Power loss
- Technical inspection refused
- Black gases
- Automobile that grazes at low speed
- Low RPM settings
How to clean your Audi A3 EGR valve: In practice
And now we’ll commence the part you are most interested in, how to clean the EGR valve of your car. Here are the two approaches that you can use.
Do it yourself
How to clean your Audi A3 EGR valve system: Without dismantle
Even though this procedure is less effective, it is however possible to consider a “rough” cleaning of your EGR valve, actually, you will only need to use fuel additives, equivalent to the products used to clean the injection. These specific products must be injected into the running engine, at the right operating temperature, diluted in about 20 litres of fuel and run the engine for 3 or 4 minutes in high rev to clean the EGR valve of your Audi A3.
How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly
Here is the most effective procedure, which will require enough access to the EGR valve to conduct the treatment on your own. If so, the operation is fairly easy. You will need to disconnect the electromagnet from the EGR valve, remove the few screws that hold it in place, and remove it. Once these simple steps are carried out, now comes the time for cleaning. To do this, you will need to use a product such as solvent, petrol, oven cleaning product, which you will leave to act for ten minutes, then scrape off the rest using a scraper, finish cleaning with wire brush. If you want to go further, you can as well clean the two conduits on which it is connected which may be scorched, for this, use a scraper and a vacuum cleaner to avoid dropping deposits in the conduits. You will only have to reassemble it and you will have finished cleaning the EGR valve of your Audi A3.
Have it done by a professional
If, your EGR valve is not accessible because of the series or the engine of your car and if removing it would cause too many complications (removing too many parts that hinder access for example), how to clean the EGR valve of your Audi A3? In cases like this, it would be better rather than launching yourself into an overly complex process, you turn to an auto mechanic. He will be able to accomplish the job more cleanly and will be able, if necessary, to change the valve if it is dead. The cost of cleaning dependent on the difficulty of access is between 70 and 300 €.
Remove the EGR valve of your Audi A3
At last, some people make a more radical decision to limit the risk of a failed valve. Rather than cleaning the EGR valve of their Audi A3, they just choose to block it in the closed position. This manipulation will have the effect of greatly increasing the pollution emitted by the car, of no longer complying with pollution standards, of having an engine warning light all day on and in the end risk fouling the engine. We strongly suggest against making this choice. If you have other questions or want to learn more about your car, don’t hesitate to check out our dedicated page.
To find more tips on the Audi A3, take a look at the Audi A3 category.
