You’ve likely already heard about the famous EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not generally appreciated by car owners because it has a tendency to create more concerns than anything else… Actually, depending on the use you are going to make of your vehicle, it can become congested and cause you a lot of problems. If this is the case, you are likely concerned about how to clean the EGR valve of your BMW X5 ? Don’t get worried, we’ve prepared this article content to help you with this procedure. To accomplish this, we will first check out the purpose of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your BMW X5 can provoke and to finish the part that will likely concern you the most, how to clean the EGR valve BMW X5?
How to Clean your BMW X5 EGR Valve: Role and Operation
Purpose of the EGR valve
The EGR valve of your car has been added to diesel engines mainly to reduce pollution emitted by cars and to fulfill EURO measures on BMW X5 . It will as a consequence control the quality of exhaust gas output and get rid of toxic particles, mainly Nitrogen Oxide.
Operation of the EGR valve
Before we learn how to clean the EGR valve on your BMW X5 , we will have a look at how it operates. As seen before, its goal is to clean the exhaust gases, so it will be located 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 get rid of 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 X5 EGR valve: Identifying faults
The EGR valve, despite the fact very important to limit the pollution emissions of your BMW X5 , will unfortunately tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will build up in its system, which will inevitably risk blocking the operation of the valve, until completely blocking the engine, here are the signs of illness that a defective EGR valve on your BMW X5 can provoke:
- Motor light on
- Performance loss
- Technical inspection rejected
- Black gases
- Car that grazes at low speed
- Low RPM settings
How to clean your BMW X5 EGR valve: In practice
And now we’ll start the part you are most excited about, how to clean the EGR valve of your car. Here are the two solutions that you can use.
Do it yourself
How to clean your BMW X5 EGR valve system: Without taking it apart
Even though this process is less efficient, it is however possible to consider a “rough” cleaning of your EGR valve, in reality, you will only need to use fuel additives, similar to the products used to clean the injection. These specific 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 X5.
How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly
Here is the strongest process, which will require sufficient access to the EGR valve to carry out the operation without help. If so, the procedure 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 guidelines 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 also 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 X5.
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 auto parts that hinder access for example), how to clean the EGR valve of your BMW X5? In cases like this, it would be better rather than launching yourself into an overly complex procedure, you turn to an auto mechanic. He will be able to perform the job more cleanly and will be able, if required, 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 X5
At last, a number of people make a more radical decision to limit the risk of a failed valve. Rather than cleaning the EGR valve of their BMW X5, they just prefer to block it in the closed position. This manipulation will have the result of greatly increasing the pollution emitted by the vehicle, 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 highly advise 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 get more tips on the BMW X5, take a look at the BMW X5 category.
