You’ve almost certainly previously read about the popular EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not usually appreciated by drivers because it is likely to develop more concerns than anything else… Indeed, depending on the use you are going to make of your vehicle, it can become congested and trigger you a lot of trouble. If this is the case, you are almost certainly wanting to know how to clean the EGR valve of your Subaru Legacy ? Don’t worry, we’ve written this content page to help you with this process. To do so, we will first check out the role of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your Subaru Legacy can trigger and finally the section that will almost certainly interest you the most, how to clean the EGR valve Subaru Legacy?
How to Clean your Subaru Legacy EGR Valve: Role and Operation
Goal of the EGR valve
The EGR valve of your car has been added to diesel engines mostly to reduce pollution released by cars and to fulfill EURO requirements on Subaru Legacy . It will therefore control the quality of exhaust gas output and get rid of toxic particles, mainly Nitrogen Oxide.
Operation of the EGR valve
Before we discover how to clean the EGR valve on your Subaru Legacy , we will take a look at how it works. As described before, its mission 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 get rid of all unburned toxic particles. It will operate mainly at low speed because at high speed the combustion is enough to burn all these gases.
How to clean your Subaru Legacy EGR valve: Identifying faults
The EGR valve, despite the fact very effective to limit the pollution emissions of your Subaru Legacy , will unfortunately tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will build up in its system, which will ultimately risk blocking the operation of the valve, until totally blocking the engine, here are the symptoms that a defective EGR valve on your Subaru Legacy can provoke:
- Motor light on
- Power loss
- Technical assesment refused
- Black gases
- Car that grazes at low speed
- Low RPM settings
How to clean your Subaru Legacy EGR valve: In practice
And now we’ll begin the section you are most excited about, how to clean the EGR valve of your car. Here are the two techniques that you can use.
Do it yourself
How to clean your Subaru Legacy 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, actually, you will only need to use fuel additives, similar to the products used to clean the injection. These specific 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 Subaru Legacy.
How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly
Here is the most beneficial methodology, which will require enough access to the EGR valve to carry out the operation on your own. If so, the process 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 simple steps are done, now comes the time for cleaning. To accomplish 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 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 Subaru Legacy.
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 complications (removing too many parts that hinder access for example), how to clean the EGR valve of your Subaru Legacy? 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 do the job more cleanly and will be able, if required, 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 Subaru Legacy
At last, 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 Subaru Legacy, they simply prefer to block it in the closed position. This manipulation will have the outcome of greatly increasing the pollution released by the vehicle, 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 recommend against making this choice. If you have other questions or want to learn more about your car, don’t be reluctant to check out our dedicated page.
To get more tips on the Subaru Legacy, take a look at the Subaru Legacy category.
