You’ve most likely already read about the well-known EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not always appreciated by car owners because it has a tendency to create more concerns than anything else… In actual fact, based on the use you are going to make of your car, it can become clogged and trigger you a lot of problems. If this is the situation, you are most likely wondering how to clean the EGR valve of your Kia Sportage ? Don’t be anxious, we’ve written this content page to help you with this process. To do so, we will initially look at the purpose of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your Kia Sportage can cause and finally the section that will most likely appeal you the most, how to clean the EGR valve Kia Sportage?

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How to Clean your Kia Sportage EGR Valve: Role and Operation

Purpose of the EGR valve

The EGR valve of your car has been integrated to diesel engines mostly to reduce pollution released by cars and to fulfill EURO requirements on Kia Sportage . It will therefore control the quality of exhaust gas output and eradicate toxic particles, mainly Nitrogen Oxide.

Operation of the EGR valve

Before we learn how to clean the EGR valve on your Kia Sportage , we will have a look at how it functions. As seen just 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 eradicate all unburned toxic particles. It will operate mostly at low speed because at high speed the combustion is sufficient to burn all these gases.

How to clean your Kia Sportage EGR valve: Identifying faults

The EGR valve, although very effective to limit the pollution emissions of your Kia Sportage , will sadly tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will accumulate in its mechanism, which will finally risk blocking the operation of the valve, until completely blocking the engine unit, here are the signs of illness that a defective EGR valve on your Kia Sportage can bring about:

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

How to clean your Kia Sportage EGR valve: In practice

And now we’ll start the section you are most enthusiastic about, how to clean the EGR valve of your car. Here are the two ways that you can use.

Do it on your own

How to clean your Kia Sportage EGR valve system: Without dismantle

Even though 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 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 Sportage.

How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly

Here is the strongest approach, which will require sufficient access to the EGR valve to perform the treatment on your own. If so, the process 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 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 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 Sportage.

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 Sportage? 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 accomplish the job more cleanly and will be able, if required, to change the valve if it is dead. The cost of cleaning based on the difficulty of access is between 70 and 300 €.

Remove the EGR valve of your Kia Sportage

Finally, some individuals make a more radical decision to limit the risk of a failed valve. Instead of cleaning the EGR valve of their Kia Sportage, they simply choose to block it in the closed position. This modification will have the consequence of greatly increasing the pollution released by the car, of no longer complying with pollution requirements, of having an engine warning light all day on and eventually risk fouling the engine. We highly recommend 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 find more tips on the Kia Sportage, take a look at the Kia Sportage category.