You’ve likely previously heard of the renowned EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not generally appreciated by drivers because it tends to create more concerns than anything else… In fact, depending on 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 situation, you are likely concerned about how to clean the EGR valve of your Kia Sorento ? Don’t get worried, we’ve made this article to help you with this process. To do so, we will initially check out the goal of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your Kia Sorento can bring about and finally the part that will likely appeal you the most, how to clean the EGR valve Kia Sorento?
How to Clean your Kia Sorento EGR Valve: Role and Operation
Goal of the EGR valve
The EGR valve of your car has been integrated to diesel engines primarily to reduce pollution emitted by automobiles and to fulfill EURO requirements on Kia Sorento . It will consequently control 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 Sorento , we will check out how it operates. As seen before, its objective is to clean the exhaust gases, so it will be installed 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 mostly at low speed because at high speed the combustion is enough to burn all these gases.
How to clean your Kia Sorento EGR valve: Identifying faults
The EGR valve, although very effective to limit the pollution emissions of your Kia Sorento , will unfortunately 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, here are the symptoms that a faulty EGR valve on your Kia Sorento can bring about:
- Motor light on
- Performance loss
- Technical assesment refused
- Black fumes
- Car that grazes at low speed
- Low RPM settings
How to clean your Kia Sorento EGR valve: In practice
And now we’ll begin the part you are most serious about, how to clean the EGR valve of your car. Here are the two methods that you can use.
Do it on your own
How to clean your Kia Sorento EGR valve system: Without taking it apart
Nevertheless this methodology 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 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 Kia Sorento.
How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly
Here is the best methodology, which will require enough access to the EGR valve to perform the process without help. 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 guidelines are finished, now comes the time for cleaning. To make this happen, 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 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 Kia Sorento.
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 Kia Sorento? In this instance, 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 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 Kia Sorento
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 Kia Sorento, they simply prefer to block it in the closed position. This manipulation will have the consequence of greatly increasing the pollution emitted by the car, of no longer complying with pollution criteria, of having an engine warning light all day on and in the end risk fouling the engine. We highly suggest against making this choice. If you have other questions or want to learn more about your car, don’t be reluctant to take a look at our dedicated page.
If you wish more tutorials on the Kia Sorento, go to our Kia Sorento category.
