You’ve most likely previously heard of the famous EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not always appreciated by car owners because it is likely to develop more trouble than anything else… Actually, according to the use you are going to make of your vehicle, it can become congested and trigger you a lot of complications. If this is the situation, you are most likely concerned about how to clean the EGR valve of your Cadillac XTS ? Don’t be anxious, we’ve made this article to help you with this process. To achieve this, we will first take a look at the purpose of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your Cadillac XTS can reason and finally the section that will most likely concern you the most, how to clean the EGR valve Cadillac XTS?
How to Clean your Cadillac XTS EGR Valve: Role and Operation
Goal of the EGR valve
The EGR valve of your car has been added to diesel engines mostly to reduce pollution emitted by automobiles and to meet EURO specifications on Cadillac XTS . It will therefore influence 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 Cadillac XTS , we will examine how it operates. As seen before, its task 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 get rid of all unburned toxic particles. It will work mostly at low speed because at high speed the combustion is enough to burn all these gases.
How to clean your Cadillac XTS EGR valve: Identifying faults
The EGR valve, even though very effective to limit the pollution emissions of your Cadillac XTS , will regrettably tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will accumulate in its system, which will inevitably risk blocking the functions of the valve, until entirely blocking the engine, here are the signs of illness that a faulty EGR valve on your Cadillac XTS can bring about:
- Motor light on
- Performance loss
- Technical assesment refused
- Black gases
- Automobile that grazes at low speed
- Low RPM settings
How to clean your Cadillac XTS EGR valve: In practice
And now we’ll begin the section you are most excited about, how to clean the EGR valve of your car. Here are the two methods that you can use.
Do it on your own
How to clean your Cadillac XTS EGR valve system: Without taking it apart
Although this technique is less efficient, it is however possible to consider a “rough” cleaning of your EGR valve, in fact, 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 Cadillac XTS.
How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly
Here is the most effective technique, which will require enough access to the EGR valve to carry out the process without help. If so, the process 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 steps are completed, now comes the time for cleaning. To get this done, 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 Cadillac XTS.
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 difficulties (removing too many elements that hinder access for example), how to clean the EGR valve of your Cadillac XTS? 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 perform the job more cleanly and will be able, if required, to change the valve if it is dead. The cost of cleaning according to the difficulty of access is between 70 and 300 €.
Remove the EGR valve of your Cadillac XTS
Finally, 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 Cadillac XTS, they simply prefer to block it in the closed position. This modification will have the result of greatly increasing the pollution emitted by the vehicle, of no longer complying with pollution criteria, of having an engine warning light permanently on and in the end risk fouling the engine. We highly recommend 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 Cadillac XTS, take a look at the Cadillac XTS category.
