You’ve most likely previously heard about the renowned EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not generally appreciated by car owners because it has a tendency to cause more problems than anything else… In reality, depending on the use you are going to make of your automobile, it can become clogged and cause 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 Sequoia ? Don’t be anxious, we’ve written this article to help you with this task. To achieve this, we will first look at the goal of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your Toyota Sequoia can cause and at last the section that will most likely interest you the most, how to clean the EGR valve Toyota Sequoia?

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

Purpose of the EGR valve

The EGR valve of your car has been added to diesel engines mostly to lower pollution emitted by cars and to fulfill EURO measures on Toyota Sequoia . It will consequently influence the quality of exhaust gas output and get rid of toxic particles, mainly Nitrogen Oxide.

Operation of the EGR valve

Before we learn how to clean the EGR valve on your Toyota Sequoia , we will take a look at how it works. As described before, its mission is to clean the exhaust gases, so it will be located 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 work principally at low speed because at high speed the combustion is enough to burn all these gases.

How to clean your Toyota Sequoia EGR valve: Identifying faults

The EGR valve, even though very beneficial to limit the pollution emissions of your Toyota Sequoia , will unfortunately tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will accumulate in its mechanism, which will inevitably risk obstructing the operation of the valve, until totally blocking the engine motor, here are the symptoms that a faulty EGR valve on your Toyota Sequoia can cause:

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

How to clean your Toyota Sequoia EGR valve: In practice

And now we’ll start 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 yourself

How to clean your Toyota Sequoia EGR valve system: Without taking it apart

Although this procedure is less effective, it is however possible to consider a “rough” cleaning of your EGR valve, in reality, you will only need to use fuel additives, similar 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 Toyota Sequoia.

How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly

Here is the most effective procedure, which will require enough access to the EGR valve to accomplish the operation on your own. If so, the operation 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 steps are completed, 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 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 Toyota Sequoia.

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 elements that hinder access for example), how to clean the EGR valve of your Toyota Sequoia? In this case, it would be better rather than launching yourself into an overly complex task, you turn to an auto mechanic. He will be able to perform the job more cleanly and will be able, if necessary, 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 Toyota Sequoia

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 Toyota Sequoia, they simply prefer to block it in the closed position. This manipulation will have the result of greatly increasing the pollution emitted by the automobile, of no longer complying with pollution criteria, of having an engine warning light permanently on and eventually 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 hesitate to check out our dedicated page.

If you have any further questions about the Toyota Sequoia, do not hesitate to consult our Toyota Sequoia category.