You’ve almost certainly previously heard about the well-known EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not always appreciated by motorists because it has a tendency to cause more problems than anything else… In reality, according to the use you are going to make of your car, it can become congested and cause you a lot of problems. If this is the situation, you are almost certainly concerned about how to clean the EGR valve of your Nissan Pathfinder ? Don’t worry, we’ve well prepared this content to help you with this procedure. To achieve this, we will initially check out the role of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your Nissan Pathfinder can provoke and to finish the part that will almost certainly appeal you the most, how to clean the EGR valve Nissan Pathfinder?
How to Clean your Nissan Pathfinder EGR Valve: Role and Operation
Goal 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 standards on Nissan Pathfinder . It will as a consequence 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 Nissan Pathfinder , we will take a look at how it operates. As described just before, its objective is to clean the exhaust gases, 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 perform mainly at low speed because at high speed the combustion is sufficient to burn all these gases.
How to clean your Nissan Pathfinder EGR valve: Identifying faults
The EGR valve, nevertheless very beneficial to limit the pollution emissions of your Nissan Pathfinder , will sadly tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will accumulate in its mechanism, which will ultimately risk obstructing the operation of the valve, until completely blocking the engine motor, here are the symptoms that a faulty EGR valve on your Nissan Pathfinder can bring about:
- Motor light on
- Performance loss
- Technical assesment rejected
- Black fumes
- Automobile that grazes at low speed
- Low RPM settings
How to clean your Nissan Pathfinder EGR valve: In practice
And now we’ll commence the part you are most intrigued by, 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 Nissan Pathfinder EGR valve system: Without taking it apart
Despite the fact this procedure is less efficient, 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 Nissan Pathfinder.
How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly
Here is the most effective procedure, which will require sufficient access to the EGR valve to execute the operation on your own. If so, the process 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 achieved, 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 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 Nissan Pathfinder.
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 Nissan Pathfinder? In cases like this, it would be better rather than launching yourself into an overly complex procedure, 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 according to the difficulty of access is between 70 and 300 €.
Remove the EGR valve of your Nissan Pathfinder
Finally, some individuals make a more radical decision to limit the risk of a failed valve. Rather than cleaning the EGR valve of their Nissan Pathfinder, they just prefer 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 standards, 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 hesitate to take a look at our dedicated page.
If you need more tutorials on the Nissan Pathfinder, go to our Nissan Pathfinder category.
