You’ve likely previously heard of the popular EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not usually appreciated by car owners because it is likely to develop more trouble than anything else… In actual fact, determined by the use you are going to make of your car, it can become congested and trigger you a lot of problems. If this is the case, you are likely wanting to know how to clean the EGR valve of your Kia Optima ? Don’t worry, we’ve well prepared this article content to help you with this task. To achieve this, we will initially look at the intent of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your Kia Optima can trigger and to finish the part that will likely concern you the most, how to clean the EGR valve Kia Optima?
How to Clean your Kia Optima EGR Valve: Role and Operation
Purpose of the EGR valve
The EGR valve of your car has been added to diesel engines mostly to lower pollution released by vehicles and to meet EURO requirements on Kia Optima . It will therefore influence the quality of exhaust gas output and reduce toxic particles, mainly Nitrogen Oxide.
Operation of the EGR valve
Before we discover how to clean the EGR valve on your Kia Optima , we will examine how it works. As described 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 reduce all unburned toxic particles. It will operate mainly at low speed because at high speed the combustion is enough to burn all these gases.
How to clean your Kia Optima EGR valve: Identifying faults
The EGR valve, despite the fact very important to limit the pollution emissions of your Kia Optima , will sadly tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will accumulate in its system, which will ultimately risk obstructing the functions of the valve, until entirely blocking the engine motor, here are the signs of illness that a defective EGR valve on your Kia Optima can trigger:
- Motor light on
- Power loss
- Technical assesment rejected
- Black gases
- Vehicle that grazes at low speed
- Low RPM settings
How to clean your Kia Optima EGR valve: In practice
And now we’ll commence the part you are most interested in, 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 Kia Optima EGR valve system: Without taking it apart
Although this approach 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, 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 Kia Optima.
How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly
Here is the strongest approach, which will require enough access to the EGR valve to accomplish the operation yourself. 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 steps are accomplished, now comes the time for cleaning. To achieve 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 also 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 Kia Optima.
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 troubles (removing too many parts that hinder access for example), how to clean the EGR valve of your Kia Optima? In this 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 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 Kia Optima
Finally, a number of people make a more radical decision to limit the risk of a failed valve. Instead of cleaning the EGR valve of their Kia Optima, they simply prefer to block it in the closed position. This treatment will have the result of greatly increasing the pollution released by the car, of no longer complying with pollution requirements, of having an engine warning light permanently on and eventually 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 think twice to check out our dedicated page.
If you want more guides on the Kia Optima, go to our Kia Optima category.
