You’ve most likely already heard about 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 fact, based on the use you are going to make of your vehicle, it can become clogged and bring about you a lot of complications. If this is the case, you are most likely wanting to know how to clean the EGR valve of your Volkswagen Polo ? Don’t stress, we’ve prepared this article to help you with this operation. To do this, we will first look at the goal of the EGR valve, then what are the failures that the EGR valve of your Volkswagen Polo can reason and to finish the section that will most likely appeal you the most, how to clean the EGR valve Volkswagen Polo?

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

Purpose of the EGR valve

The EGR valve of your car has been added to diesel engines primarily to lower pollution emitted by cars and to fulfill EURO measures on Volkswagen Polo . It will as a result control the quality of exhaust gas output and eliminate toxic particles, mainly Nitrogen Oxide.

Operation of the EGR valve

Before we discover how to clean the EGR valve on your Volkswagen Polo , we will check out how it works. 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 operate mainly at low speed because at high speed the combustion is sufficient to burn all these gases.

How to clean your Volkswagen Polo EGR valve: Identifying faults

The EGR valve, despite the fact very beneficial to limit the pollution emissions of your Volkswagen Polo , will sadly tend to clog up because of soot/gas deposits that will build up in its mechanism, which will inevitably risk blocking the functions of the valve, until completely blocking the engine motor, here are the signs of illness that a faulty EGR valve on your Volkswagen Polo can bring about:

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

How to clean your Volkswagen Polo 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 solutions that you can use.

Do it yourself

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

Although this technique 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 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 Polo.

How to clean your car EGR valve: With disassembly

Here is the most effective technique, which will require sufficient access to the EGR valve to accomplish the treatment on your own. If so, the procedure 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 accomplished, 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 also 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 Polo.

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 elements that hinder access for example), how to clean the EGR valve of your Volkswagen Polo? In cases like this, it would be better rather than launching yourself into an overly complex operation, 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 based on the difficulty of access is between 70 and 300 €.

Remove the EGR valve of your Volkswagen Polo

Finally, some people make a more radical decision to limit the risk of a failed valve. Instead of cleaning the EGR valve of their Volkswagen Polo, they simply prefer to block it in the closed position. This treatment will have the consequence of greatly increasing the pollution emitted by the vehicle, of no longer complying with pollution standards, of having an engine warning light all day on and ultimately risk fouling the engine. We highly advise against making this choice. If you have other questions or want to learn more about your car, don’t think twice to check out our dedicated page.

If you want more guides on the Volkswagen Polo, go to our Volkswagen Polo category.