You’ve most likely previously heard about the well-known EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not usually appreciated by car owners because it tends to cause more trouble than anything else… In actual fact, based on the use you are going to make of your automobile, it can become blocked and trigger you a lot of trouble. If this is the situation, you are most likely wondering how to clean the EGR valve of your Toyota Tundra ? Don’t worry, we’ve written this article content to help you with this task. To do so, we will initially look at the role of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your Toyota Tundra can bring about and to finish the part that will most likely concern you the most, how to clean the EGR valve Toyota Tundra?

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How to Clean your Toyota Tundra 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 emitted by cars and to fulfill EURO standards on Toyota Tundra . It will consequently influence the quality of exhaust gas output and eliminate toxic particles, mainly Nitrogen Oxide.

Operation of the EGR valve

Before we learn how to clean the EGR valve on your Toyota Tundra , we will have a look at how it functions. As seen just before, its objective 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 eliminate all unburned toxic particles. It will operate mainly at low speed because at high speed the combustion is sufficient to burn all these gases.

How to clean your Toyota Tundra EGR valve: Identifying faults

The EGR valve, although very beneficial to limit the pollution emissions of your Toyota Tundra , will unfortunately tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will build up in its mechanism, which will inevitably risk blocking the operation of the valve, until totally blocking the engine unit, here are the signs of illness that a defective EGR valve on your Toyota Tundra can cause:

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

How to clean your Toyota Tundra EGR valve: In practice

And now we’ll start the part you are most curious about, how to clean the EGR valve of your car. Here are the two techniques that you can use.

Do it on your own

How to clean your Toyota Tundra EGR valve system: Without dismantle

Nevertheless this process is less efficient, 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 Tundra.

How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly

Here is the strongest process, which will require sufficient access to the EGR valve to perform the treatment on your own. 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 steps are finished, now comes the time for cleaning. To achieve 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 even 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 Tundra.

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 Toyota Tundra? 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 carry out the job more cleanly and will be able, if necessary, to change the valve if it is dead. The cost of cleaning based on the difficulty of access is between 70 and 300 €.

Remove the EGR valve of your Toyota Tundra

Finally, some individuals make a more radical decision to limit the risk of a failed valve. Instead of cleaning the EGR valve of their Toyota Tundra, 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 highly recommend 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.

To find more tips on the Toyota Tundra, take a look at the Toyota Tundra category.