You’ve likely previously been aware of the well-known EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not always appreciated by motorists because it is likely to develop more problems than anything else… In truth, determined by the use you are going to make of your car, it can become congested and trigger you a lot of trouble. If this is the case, you are likely concerned about how to clean the EGR valve of your Dodge Journey ? Don’t be anxious, we’ve written this content page to help you with this process. To achieve this, we will first check out the intent of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your Dodge Journey can bring on and finally the part that will likely interest you the most, how to clean the EGR valve Dodge Journey?
How to Clean your Dodge Journey EGR Valve: Role and Operation
Purpose of the EGR valve
The EGR valve of your car has been integrated to diesel engines principally to lower pollution released by automobiles and to fulfill EURO requirements on Dodge Journey . It will as a result influence 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 Dodge Journey , we will check out 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 eliminate all unburned toxic particles. It will function mostly at low speed because at high speed the combustion is enough to burn all these gases.
How to clean your Dodge Journey EGR valve: Identifying faults
The EGR valve, despite the fact very important to limit the pollution emissions of your Dodge Journey , will regrettably tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will accumulate in its mechanism, which will eventually risk blocking the functions of the valve, until totally blocking the engine, here are the signs of illness that a defective EGR valve on your Dodge Journey can trigger:
- Motor light on
- Performance loss
- Technical assesment rejected
- Black fumes
- Automobile that grazes at low speed
- Low RPM settings
How to clean your Dodge Journey EGR valve: In practice
And now we’ll begin 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 Dodge Journey EGR valve system: Without dismantle
Despite the fact this approach 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, 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 Dodge Journey.
How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly
Here is the more effective approach, which will require enough access to the EGR valve to do the operation without help. If so, the procedure 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 guidelines are done, 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 even 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 Dodge Journey.
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 elements that hinder access for example), how to clean the EGR valve of your Dodge Journey? In such a case, it would be better rather than launching yourself into an overly complex process, you turn to an auto mechanic. He will be able to carry out 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 Dodge Journey
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 Dodge Journey, they just choose to block it in the closed position. This modification will have the consequence of greatly increasing the pollution released by the car, of no longer complying with pollution criteria, of having an engine warning light permanently on and in the end 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 hesitate to take a look at our dedicated page.
If you wish more tutorials on the Dodge Journey, go to our Dodge Journey category.
