You’ve almost certainly previously heard about the popular EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not usually appreciated by motorists because it is likely to cause more problems than anything else… In fact, determined by the use you are going to make of your automobile, it can become blocked and bring about you a lot of concerns. If this is the situation, you are almost certainly wondering how to clean the EGR valve of your BMW 2 Series ? Don’t stress, we’ve written this content to help you with this operation. To achieve this, we will first take a look at the intent of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your BMW 2 Series can trigger and at last the section that will almost certainly appeal you the most, how to clean the EGR valve BMW 2 Series?

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How to Clean your BMW 2 Series EGR Valve: Role and Operation

Purpose of the EGR valve

The EGR valve of your car has been added to diesel engines principally to lower pollution emitted by automobiles and to match EURO measures on BMW 2 Series . It will as a consequence control the quality of exhaust gas output and reduce toxic particles, mainly Nitrogen Oxide.

Operation of the EGR valve

Before we discover how to clean the EGR valve on your BMW 2 Series , we will take a look at how it functions. As described before, its goal is to clean the exhaust fumes, so it will be positioned 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 run mostly at low speed because at high speed the combustion is sufficient to burn all these gases.

How to clean your BMW 2 Series EGR valve: Identifying faults

The EGR valve, although very beneficial to limit the pollution emissions of your BMW 2 Series , will unfortunately tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will build up in its mechanism, which will finally risk blocking the functions of the valve, until completely blocking the engine motor, here are the symptoms that a faulty EGR valve on your BMW 2 Series can bring about:

  • Motor light on
  • Power loss
  • Technical assesment rejected
  • Black gases
  • Car that grazes at low speed
  • Low RPM settings

How to clean your BMW 2 Series EGR valve: In practice

And now we’ll start the section you are most enthusiastic about, how to clean the EGR valve of your car. Here are the two techniques that you can use.

Do it yourself

How to clean your BMW 2 Series EGR valve system: Without taking it apart

Despite the fact this process is less efficient, it is however possible to consider a “rough” cleaning of your EGR valve, the truth is, you will only need to use fuel additives, equivalent to the products used to clean the injection. These particular solutions 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 BMW 2 Series.

How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly

Here is the more effective process, which will require sufficient access to the EGR valve to execute the process without help. If so, the operation is fairly straightforward. 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 steps are accomplished, now comes the time for cleaning. To accomplish 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 even clean the two canal 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 BMW 2 Series.

Have it done by a professional

If, your EGR valve is not reachable because of the series or the engine of your car and if removing it would cause too many problems (removing too many auto parts that hinder access for example), how to clean the EGR valve of your BMW 2 Series? In this case, it would be better rather than launching yourself into an overly complex operation, you turn to an auto mechanic. He will be able to do the job more cleanly and will be able, if necessary, to change the valve if it is dead. The cost of cleaning determined by the difficulty of access is between 70 and 300 €.

Remove the EGR valve of your BMW 2 Series

Finally, some people make a more radical decision to limit the risk of a failed valve. Rather than cleaning the EGR valve of their BMW 2 Series, they simply prefer to block it in the closed position. This manipulation will have the effect of greatly increasing the pollution emitted by the automobile, of no longer complying with pollution standards, of having an engine warning light permanently on and finally 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 think twice to take a look at our dedicated page.

To get more tips on the BMW 2 Series, take a look at the BMW 2 Series category.