You’ve probably already heard about the famous EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not usually appreciated by motorists because it is likely to develop more trouble than anything else… In fact, depending on the use you are going to make of your car, it can become blocked and cause you a lot of problems. If this is the situation, you are probably wondering how to clean the EGR valve of your BMW X1 ? Don’t worry, we’ve prepared this content page to help you with this operation. To achieve this, we will initially check out the intent of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your BMW X1 can bring about and at last the section that will probably concern you the most, how to clean the EGR valve BMW X1?
How to Clean your BMW X1 EGR Valve: Role and Operation
Role of the EGR valve
The EGR valve of your car has been integrated to diesel engines primarily to reduce pollution released by vehicles and to meet EURO specifications on BMW X1 . It will therefore control the quality of exhaust gas output and eliminate toxic particles, mainly Nitrogen Oxide.
Operation of the EGR valve
Before we learn how to clean the EGR valve on your BMW X1 , we will take a look at how it functions. As seen just before, its goal is to clean the exhaust gases, so it will be installed 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 eliminate all unburned toxic particles. It will work mainly at low speed because at high speed the combustion is enough to burn all these gases.
How to clean your BMW X1 EGR valve: Identifying faults
The EGR valve, despite the fact very effective to limit the pollution emissions of your BMW X1 , will regrettably tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will accumulate in its mechanism, which will ultimately risk blocking the operation of the valve, until entirely blocking the engine motor, here are the signs of illness that a defective EGR valve on your BMW X1 can cause:
- Motor light on
- Power loss
- Technical assesment rejected
- Black gases
- Automobile that grazes at low speed
- Low RPM settings
How to clean your BMW X1 EGR valve: In practice
And now we’ll begin the section you are most interested in, how to clean the EGR valve of your car. Here are the two solutions that you can use.
Do it on your own
How to clean your BMW X1 EGR valve system: Without dismantle
Even though this methodology is less effective, it is however possible to consider a “rough” cleaning of your EGR valve, the reality 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 X1.
How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly
Here is the most effective methodology, which will require enough access to the EGR valve to do the operation without help. If so, the operation is fairly simple. 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 finished, now comes the time for cleaning. To make this happen, 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 also 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 BMW X1.
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 troubles (removing too many auto parts that hinder access for example), how to clean the EGR valve of your BMW X1? In cases like this, 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 depending on the difficulty of access is between 70 and 300 €.
Remove the EGR valve of your BMW X1
At last, a number of people make a more radical decision to limit the risk of a failed valve. Instead of cleaning the EGR valve of their BMW X1, they just prefer to block it in the closed position. This treatment will have the outcome of greatly increasing the pollution released by the car, of no longer complying with pollution criteria, of having an engine warning light all day on and finally risk fouling the engine. We highly advise against making this choice. If you have other questions or want to learn more about your car, don’t hesitate to take a look at our dedicated page.
If perhaps you have any additional questions about the BMW X1, do not hesitate to consult our BMW X1 category.
