You’ve likely previously heard of the popular EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not generally appreciated by motorists because it is likely to create more concerns than anything else… In actual fact, dependent on the use you are going to make of your vehicle, it can become clogged and trigger you a lot of complications. If this is the case, you are likely concerned about how to clean the EGR valve of your Nissan Maxima ? Don’t be anxious, we’ve made this content to help you with this task. To achieve this, we will first take a look at the role of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your Nissan Maxima can provoke and finally the section that will likely interest you the most, how to clean the EGR valve Nissan Maxima?
How to Clean your Nissan Maxima EGR Valve: Role and Operation
Purpose of the EGR valve
The EGR valve of your car has been added to diesel engines mostly to reduce pollution emitted by vehicles and to match EURO standards on Nissan Maxima . It will as a consequence influence the quality of exhaust gas output and reduce toxic particles, mainly Nitrogen Oxide.
Operation of the EGR valve
Before we learn how to clean the EGR valve on your Nissan Maxima , we will take a look at how it works. As described before, its goal is to clean the exhaust fumes, 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 reduce all unburned toxic particles. It will function mainly at low speed because at high speed the combustion is sufficient to burn all these gases.
How to clean your Nissan Maxima EGR valve: Identifying faults
The EGR valve, despite the fact very important to limit the pollution emissions of your Nissan Maxima , will regrettably tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will build up in its system, which will inevitably risk obstructing the operation of the valve, until entirely blocking the engine unit, here are the signs of illness that a defective EGR valve on your Nissan Maxima can bring about:
- Motor light on
- Performance loss
- Technical inspection rejected
- Black gases
- Automobile that grazes at low speed
- Low RPM settings
How to clean your Nissan Maxima EGR valve: In practice
And now we’ll commence the section you are most interested in, how to clean the EGR valve of your car. Here are the two methods that you can use.
Do it yourself
How to clean your Nissan Maxima EGR valve system: Without dismantle
Nevertheless this process 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 particular 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 Nissan Maxima.
How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly
Here is the most efficient process, which will require sufficient access to the EGR valve to perform the process yourself. If so, the operation 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 guidelines are finished, 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 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 Nissan Maxima.
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 elements that hinder access for example), how to clean the EGR valve of your Nissan Maxima? In cases like this, it would be better rather than launching yourself into an overly complex task, 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 dependent on the difficulty of access is between 70 and 300 €.
Remove the EGR valve of your Nissan Maxima
Finally, a number of people make a more radical decision to limit the risk of a failed valve. Rather than cleaning the EGR valve of their Nissan Maxima, they simply choose to block it in the closed position. This modification will have the result of greatly increasing the pollution emitted by the vehicle, of no longer complying with pollution standards, of having an engine warning light permanently on and finally 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 take a look at our dedicated page.
If you want more guides on the Nissan Maxima, go to our Nissan Maxima category.
