You’ve almost certainly already read about the renowned EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not generally appreciated by motorists because it tends to create more trouble than anything else… Indeed, determined by the use you are going to make of your car, it can become congested and bring about you a lot of concerns. If this is the situation, you are almost certainly wanting to know how to clean the EGR valve of your Honda Civic ? Don’t get worried, we’ve made this content to help you with this task. 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 Honda Civic can cause and to finish the part that will almost certainly interest you the most, how to clean the EGR valve Honda Civic?
How to Clean your Honda Civic EGR Valve: Role and Operation
Purpose of the EGR valve
The EGR valve of your car has been added to diesel engines principally to reduce pollution emitted by automobiles and to fulfill EURO standards on Honda Civic . It will therefore control the quality of exhaust gas output and eradicate toxic particles, mainly Nitrogen Oxide.
Operation of the EGR valve
Before we discover how to clean the EGR valve on your Honda Civic , we will take a look at how it operates. As described 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 eradicate all unburned toxic particles. It will run mostly at low speed because at high speed the combustion is sufficient to burn all these gases.
How to clean your Honda Civic EGR valve: Identifying faults
The EGR valve, even though very beneficial to limit the pollution emissions of your Honda Civic , will sadly tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will accumulate in its mechanism, which will finally risk obstructing the operation of the valve, until completely blocking the engine unit, here are the symptoms that a faulty EGR valve on your Honda Civic 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 Honda Civic 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 Honda Civic EGR valve system: Without dismantle
Although this technique 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, 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 Honda Civic.
How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly
Here is the strongest technique, which will require sufficient access to the EGR valve to do the process without help. If so, the procedure is fairly simple. 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 simple steps are achieved, 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 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 Honda Civic.
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 complications (removing too many auto parts that hinder access for example), how to clean the EGR valve of your Honda Civic? In such a 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 accomplish 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 Honda Civic
Finally, some individuals make a more radical decision to limit the risk of a failed valve. Instead of cleaning the EGR valve of their Honda Civic, they just prefer to block it in the closed position. This manipulation will have the result of greatly increasing the pollution emitted by the car, of no longer complying with pollution standards, of having an engine warning light permanently on and ultimately 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 check out our dedicated page.
To get more tips on the Honda Civic, take a look at the Honda Civic category.
