You’ve most likely previously heard of the popular EGR valve, the anti-pollution valve. It is not usually appreciated by car owners because it tends to develop more problems than anything else… In reality, dependant upon the use you are going to make of your automobile, it can become clogged and trigger you a lot of trouble. If this is the case, you are most likely wanting to know how to clean the EGR valve of your Volkswagen Passat ? Don’t stress, we’ve prepared this article to help you with this process. To accomplish this, we will initially take a look at the purpose of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your Volkswagen Passat can trigger and to finish the part that will most likely interest you the most, how to clean the EGR valve Volkswagen Passat?

clean-egr-valve-volkswagen-passat

How to Clean your Volkswagen Passat EGR Valve: Role and Operation

Role of the EGR valve

The EGR valve of your car has been integrated to diesel engines mainly to reduce pollution released by automobiles and to match EURO measures on Volkswagen Passat . It will as a consequence control 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 Volkswagen Passat , we will check out how it operates. As seen just before, its task 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 eliminate all unburned toxic particles. It will work principally at low speed because at high speed the combustion is sufficient to burn all these gases.

How to clean your Volkswagen Passat EGR valve: Identifying faults

The EGR valve, despite the fact very useful to limit the pollution emissions of your Volkswagen Passat , will regrettably tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will build up in its mechanism, which will ultimately risk blocking the operation of the valve, until completely blocking the engine motor, here are the signs of illness that a faulty EGR valve on your Volkswagen Passat can provoke:

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

How to clean your Volkswagen Passat EGR valve: In practice

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

Do it on your own

How to clean your Volkswagen Passat EGR valve system: Without dismantle

Despite the fact 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, equivalent to the products used to clean the injection. These particular 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 Volkswagen Passat.

How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly

Here is the most beneficial process, which will require sufficient access to the EGR valve to do the operation on your own. If so, the procedure is fairly simple. 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 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 Volkswagen Passat.

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 complications (removing too many auto parts that hinder access for example), how to clean the EGR valve of your Volkswagen Passat? 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 accomplish the job more cleanly and will be able, if necessary, to change the valve if it is dead. The cost of cleaning dependant upon the difficulty of access is between 70 and 300 €.

Remove the EGR valve of your Volkswagen Passat

Finally, some people make a more radical decision to limit the risk of a failed valve. Rather than cleaning the EGR valve of their Volkswagen Passat, they simply prefer to block it in the closed position. This manipulation will have the consequence of greatly increasing the pollution released by the automobile, of no longer complying with pollution requirements, of having an engine warning light all day on and ultimately 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 think twice to take a look at our dedicated page.

To discover more tips on the Volkswagen Passat, take a look at the Volkswagen Passat category.