You’ve almost certainly already read about the famous EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not always appreciated by drivers because it has a tendency to cause more concerns than anything else… In reality, determined by the use you are going to make of your car, it can become clogged and trigger you a lot of trouble. If this is the situation, you are almost certainly wondering how to clean the EGR valve of your Lincoln MKZ ? Don’t stress, we’ve well prepared this article to help you with this operation. 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 Lincoln MKZ can bring about and finally the section that will almost certainly concern you the most, how to clean the EGR valve Lincoln MKZ?

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How to Clean your Lincoln MKZ EGR Valve: Role and Operation

Purpose of the EGR valve

The EGR valve of your car has been integrated to diesel engines mainly to lower pollution released by automobiles and to meet EURO requirements on Lincoln MKZ . 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 Lincoln MKZ , we will check out how it works. As described just before, its mission is to clean the exhaust fumes, so it will be positioned 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 function mainly at low speed because at high speed the combustion is enough to burn all these gases.

How to clean your Lincoln MKZ EGR valve: Identifying faults

The EGR valve, despite the fact very effective to limit the pollution emissions of your Lincoln MKZ , will regrettably tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will build up in its mechanism, which will ultimately risk obstructing the operation of the valve, until completely blocking the engine, here are the symptoms that a faulty EGR valve on your Lincoln MKZ 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 Lincoln MKZ EGR valve: In practice

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

Do it on your own

How to clean your Lincoln MKZ EGR valve system: Without taking it apart

Although this methodology is less effective, it is however possible to consider a “rough” cleaning of your EGR valve, the truth is, you will only need to use fuel additives, equivalent 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 Lincoln MKZ.

How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly

Here is the most efficient methodology, which will require enough access to the EGR valve to perform the treatment yourself. If so, the operation 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 guidelines are done, 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 even 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 Lincoln MKZ.

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 difficulties (removing too many auto parts that hinder access for example), how to clean the EGR valve of your Lincoln MKZ? In this case, it would be better rather than launching yourself into an overly complex operation, you turn to an auto mechanic. He will be able to do the job more cleanly and will be able, if required, 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 Lincoln MKZ

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 Lincoln MKZ, they simply choose to block it in the closed position. This modification will have the effect of greatly increasing the pollution released 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 recommend against making this choice. If you have other questions or want to learn more about your car, don’t think twice to take a look at our dedicated page.

If you need more guides on the Lincoln MKZ, go to our Lincoln MKZ category.