You’ve probably already heard about the well-known EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not usually appreciated by motorists because it tends to create more trouble than anything else… In reality, determined by the use you are going to make of your vehicle, it can become clogged and bring about you a lot of problems. If this is the case, you are probably wanting to know how to clean the EGR valve of your GMC Savana ? Don’t get worried, we’ve well prepared this content to help you with this process. To accomplish this, we will initially check out the goal of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your GMC Savana can provoke and at last the section that will probably appeal you the most, how to clean the EGR valve GMC Savana?

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How to Clean your GMC Savana EGR Valve: Role and Operation

Goal of the EGR valve

The EGR valve of your car has been integrated to diesel engines mostly to reduce pollution emitted by cars and to match EURO standards on GMC Savana . It will consequently 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 GMC Savana , we will examine how it functions. As seen just before, its task is to clean the exhaust fumes, 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 eliminate all unburned toxic particles. It will run mainly at low speed because at high speed the combustion is sufficient to burn all these gases.

How to clean your GMC Savana EGR valve: Identifying faults

The EGR valve, although very useful to limit the pollution emissions of your GMC Savana , will sadly tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will accumulate 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 defective EGR valve on your GMC Savana can trigger:

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

How to clean your GMC Savana EGR valve: In practice

And now we’ll commence the section you are most intrigued by, how to clean the EGR valve of your car. Here are the two approaches that you can use.

Do it on your own

How to clean your GMC Savana EGR valve system: Without taking it apart

Although this process is less effective, 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 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 GMC Savana.

How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly

Here is the most efficient process, which will require sufficient access to the EGR valve to conduct the treatment yourself. If so, the operation 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 steps are done, 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 as well 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 GMC Savana.

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 GMC Savana? 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 accomplish the job more cleanly and will be able, if required, 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 GMC Savana

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 GMC Savana, they just 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 all day on and eventually 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 take a look at our dedicated page.

To find more tips on the GMC Savana, take a look at the GMC Savana category.