You’ve likely already heard of the popular EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not generally appreciated by car owners because it tends to cause more trouble than anything else… In fact, according to the use you are going to make of your vehicle, it can become blocked and bring about you a lot of problems. If this is the case, you are likely concerned about how to clean the EGR valve of your Chevrolet Sonic ? Don’t get worried, we’ve written this content to help you with this task. To accomplish this, we will first look at the goal of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your Chevrolet Sonic can trigger and to finish the part that will likely appeal you the most, how to clean the EGR valve Chevrolet Sonic?
How to Clean your Chevrolet Sonic EGR Valve: Role and Operation
Purpose of the EGR valve
The EGR valve of your car has been added to diesel engines mostly to reduce pollution released by cars and to match EURO measures on Chevrolet Sonic . It will as a consequence control the quality of exhaust gas output and eliminate toxic particles, mainly Nitrogen Oxide.
Operation of the EGR valve
Before we discover how to clean the EGR valve on your Chevrolet Sonic , we will examine how it functions. As described before, its goal is to clean the exhaust fumes, 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 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 Chevrolet Sonic EGR valve: Identifying faults
The EGR valve, even though very important to limit the pollution emissions of your Chevrolet Sonic , will unfortunately tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will build up in its mechanism, which will inevitably risk obstructing the operation of the valve, until totally blocking the engine unit, here are the signs of illness that a faulty EGR valve on your Chevrolet Sonic can provoke:
- Motor light on
- Power loss
- Technical inspection rejected
- Black gases
- Automobile that grazes at low speed
- Low RPM settings
How to clean your Chevrolet Sonic 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 solutions that you can use.
Do it yourself
How to clean your Chevrolet Sonic EGR valve system: Without dismantle
Nevertheless 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 Chevrolet Sonic.
How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly
Here is the most effective process, which will require enough access to the EGR valve to perform the treatment on your own. 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 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 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 Chevrolet Sonic.
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 difficulties (removing too many auto parts that hinder access for example), how to clean the EGR valve of your Chevrolet Sonic? In this case, it would be better rather than launching yourself into an overly complex task, 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 according to the difficulty of access is between 70 and 300 €.
Remove the EGR valve of your Chevrolet Sonic
Finally, some people make a more radical decision to limit the risk of a failed valve. Rather than cleaning the EGR valve of their Chevrolet Sonic, they just choose to block it in the closed position. This manipulation will have the result of greatly increasing the pollution released by the vehicle, of no longer complying with pollution criteria, of having an engine warning light all day on and in the end risk fouling the engine. We strongly 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 you need more tutorials on the Chevrolet Sonic, go to our Chevrolet Sonic category.
