You’ve likely already read about the famous EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not generally appreciated by car owners because it has a tendency to develop more concerns than anything else… Indeed, based on the use you are going to make of your car, it can become blocked and bring about you a lot of concerns. If this is the case, you are likely wanting to know how to clean the EGR valve of your Dodge Ram ? Don’t be anxious, we’ve made this content page to help you with this operation. To do this, we will first look at the role of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your Dodge Ram can provoke and finally the part that will likely appeal you the most, how to clean the EGR valve Dodge Ram?

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How to Clean your Dodge Ram EGR Valve: Role and Operation

Purpose of the EGR valve

The EGR valve of your car has been added to diesel engines primarily to reduce pollution released by vehicles and to meet EURO specifications on Dodge Ram . It will therefore influence the quality of exhaust gas output and reduce toxic particles, mainly Nitrogen Oxide.

Operation of the EGR valve

Before we learn how to clean the EGR valve on your Dodge Ram , we will take a look at how it operates. As seen just before, its goal 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 reduce all unburned toxic particles. It will function principally at low speed because at high speed the combustion is enough to burn all these gases.

How to clean your Dodge Ram EGR valve: Identifying faults

The EGR valve, although very important to limit the pollution emissions of your Dodge Ram , will sadly tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will build up in its mechanism, which will inevitably risk blocking the operation of the valve, until totally blocking the engine, here are the symptoms that a defective EGR valve on your Dodge Ram can bring about:

  • Motor light on
  • Performance loss
  • Technical inspection rejected
  • Black fumes
  • Car that grazes at low speed
  • Low RPM settings

How to clean your Dodge Ram EGR valve: In practice

And now we’ll begin the part you are most interested in, how to clean the EGR valve of your car. Here are the two ways that you can use.

Do it yourself

How to clean your Dodge Ram EGR valve system: Without dismantle

Nevertheless this procedure is less efficient, it is however possible to consider a “rough” cleaning of your EGR valve, actually, you will only need to use fuel additives, equivalent to the products used to clean the injection. These particular 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 Dodge Ram.

How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly

Here is the best procedure, which will require enough access to the EGR valve to carry out the process 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 accomplished, 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 even 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 Dodge Ram.

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 parts that hinder access for example), how to clean the EGR valve of your Dodge Ram? In this instance, 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 based on the difficulty of access is between 70 and 300 €.

Remove the EGR valve of your Dodge Ram

At last, some people make a more radical decision to limit the risk of a failed valve. Instead of cleaning the EGR valve of their Dodge Ram, they simply choose to block it in the closed position. This modification will have the result 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 strongly recommend 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.

If you have any additional questions about the Dodge Ram, do not hesitate to consult our Dodge Ram category.