You’ve probably already heard of the renowned EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not always appreciated by car owners because it tends to develop more concerns than anything else… Indeed, depending on the use you are going to make of your vehicle, it can become congested and bring about you a lot of problems. If this is the case, you are probably wondering how to clean the EGR valve of your Honda Insight ? Don’t be anxious, we’ve well prepared this content to help you with this process. To do so, we will first take a look at the goal of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your Honda Insight can cause and at last the section that will probably concern you the most, how to clean the EGR valve Honda Insight?
How to Clean your Honda Insight EGR Valve: Role and Operation
Role of the EGR valve
The EGR valve of your car has been integrated to diesel engines principally to reduce pollution released by vehicles and to meet EURO standards on Honda Insight . It will consequently influence 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 Insight , we will have a look at how it functions. As described 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 eradicate all unburned toxic particles. It will operate principally at low speed because at high speed the combustion is enough to burn all these gases.
How to clean your Honda Insight EGR valve: Identifying faults
The EGR valve, despite the fact very important to limit the pollution emissions of your Honda Insight , will sadly tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will build up in its mechanism, which will finally risk obstructing the operation of the valve, until completely blocking the engine unit, here are the signs of illness that a faulty EGR valve on your Honda Insight can provoke:
- Motor light on
- Performance loss
- Technical assesment refused
- Black fumes
- Car that grazes at low speed
- Low RPM settings
How to clean your Honda Insight EGR valve: In practice
And now we’ll begin the section 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 Insight EGR valve system: Without dismantle
Although this approach is less efficient, it is however possible to consider a “rough” cleaning of your EGR valve, the reality is, 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 Honda Insight.
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 accomplish the process without help. If so, the procedure 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 simple steps are carried out, 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 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 Honda Insight.
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 elements that hinder access for example), how to clean the EGR valve of your Honda Insight? 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 do the job more cleanly and will be able, if necessary, to change the valve if it is dead. The cost of cleaning depending on the difficulty of access is between 70 and 300 €.
Remove the EGR valve of your Honda Insight
Finally, some individuals make a more radical decision to limit the risk of a failed valve. Rather than cleaning the EGR valve of their Honda Insight, they just choose to block it in the closed position. This treatment will have the outcome of greatly increasing the pollution released by the vehicle, of no longer complying with pollution requirements, of having an engine warning light permanently on and ultimately 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 think twice to check out our dedicated page.
If you wish more tutorials on the Honda Insight, go to our Honda Insight category.
