You’ve most likely previously read about the popular EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not usually appreciated by car owners because it tends to develop more concerns than anything else… In fact, dependent on the use you are going to make of your automobile, it can become blocked and trigger you a lot of problems. If this is the situation, you are most likely wanting to know how to clean the EGR valve of your Toyota Corolla ? Don’t worry, we’ve written this content page to help you with this operation. To do so, we will first look at the purpose of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your Toyota Corolla can trigger and finally the section that will most likely appeal you the most, how to clean the EGR valve Toyota Corolla?

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How to Clean your Toyota Corolla EGR Valve: Role and Operation

Goal of the EGR valve

The EGR valve of your car has been added to diesel engines primarily to lower pollution released by cars and to meet EURO standards on Toyota Corolla . It will as a consequence influence 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 Toyota Corolla , we will take a look at how it operates. As described 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 function mostly at low speed because at high speed the combustion is sufficient to burn all these gases.

How to clean your Toyota Corolla EGR valve: Identifying faults

The EGR valve, despite the fact very beneficial to limit the pollution emissions of your Toyota Corolla , will sadly tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will accumulate in its mechanism, which will eventually risk obstructing the operation of the valve, until completely blocking the engine unit, here are the symptoms that a defective EGR valve on your Toyota Corolla can cause:

  • Motor light on
  • Performance loss
  • Technical assesment refused
  • Black gases
  • Vehicle that grazes at low speed
  • Low RPM settings

How to clean your Toyota Corolla EGR valve: In practice

And now we’ll start the section you are most intrigued by, 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 Toyota Corolla EGR valve system: Without dismantle

Despite the fact this methodology is less effective, it is however possible to consider a “rough” cleaning of your EGR valve, the reality is, 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 Toyota Corolla.

How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly

Here is the most reliable methodology, which will require sufficient access to the EGR valve to carry out the process 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 guidelines are finished, 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 Toyota Corolla.

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 problems (removing too many auto parts that hinder access for example), how to clean the EGR valve of your Toyota Corolla? In such a 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 carry out 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 Toyota Corolla

At last, some individuals make a more radical decision to limit the risk of a failed valve. Rather than cleaning the EGR valve of their Toyota Corolla, they just choose to block it in the closed position. This treatment will have the consequence of greatly increasing the pollution released by the automobile, of no longer complying with pollution standards, of having an engine warning light all day on and eventually 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 check out our dedicated page.

Whenever you have any additional questions about the Toyota Corolla, do not hesitate to consult our Toyota Corolla category.