Beware the EGR low pressure cooler

[Stevey Y]

Hi chaps, I just thought I would put this one out there, my EML went on last Friday telling me that particle trap bank 1 was blocked but tested then memory clear anyway I looked at how many times the fault had occurred and it worked out about thirty times before it finally put the light on so I limped through the weekend with a good dose of EGR cleaner and made it to this Tuesday, I had a look round Monday and the Slimebags at Audi only sell it as a kit with the valve £700.00 then theres the extra cost of the gaskets you will need another £95.00, I had already bought the EGR valve from a VAG parts dealer on eBay, genuine VEO Continental so did not need the valve just the cooler, all the other monkeys like ECP,Motex etc have jumped on the bandwagon and wanted £500.00 plus just for the cooler, so I opted for a previously owned cooler from the local VAG breakers so while my car was having major surgery I set about it with some carbon cleaner and a can of Mr Muscle that cured it daylight through all holes.

My life the reason for the original units failure was wall to wall wet Adblue crystals this was because the water jacket around the cooler tubes had developed a water leak which I was reliably informed that if it was left it would have caused a hydraulic lock taking the pistons and rods with it anyway I adapted the new valve this morning and went for a drive in circles at first gradually increasing my range until I was happy about 50 miles in all, so far so good no light no codes and £65.00 for a second hand cooler I will let you know.

Steve. 

[YAMAN]

Hi

I HAVE the same code fault. Cleared the fault, I've the engine light comeback. I might have to replace the EGr Cooler?

 

Cheers

[Stevey Y]

8 minutes ago, YAMAN said:

Hi

I HAVE the same code fault. Cleared the fault, I've the engine light comeback. I might have to replace the EGr Cooler?

 

Cheers

Hi yes and the valve at the end of it with new gaskets and a heat shield for the new low pressure valve, the task is not for the faint hearted it took them all day just to get the old one out as you have to disconnect a section of the exhaust from the DPF to midway under the car take out that side engine mount and remove the sensors from the bit before the Cat plus the sensor on the bit of pipe you remove, you then have to unplug the DPF pressure sensors as well as about ten other plugs, all this after tripping back most of the bulkhead plastic covers and heat shields to get enough room to work, believe me I did not begrudge the guy one penny of what I paid him as well as the two gallons of tea, if you get at it soon you will be ok otherwise you risk trashing your engine, its a cr@p job and a badly designed thing and I will cut the old one to pieces next week to find out whats actually inside as that might indicate why they fail, I took one off of a BMW a while ago and they are at the top of the engine on the side of the cylinder head three bolts and a couple of hose clips and it falls off we never cleaned the old one as a new one was £150.00 and not over £500.00.

Steve.

[Steve Q]

Sorry to hear you've had this issue Steve, glad it was caught before more serious damage was caused! 

[YAMAN]

Thanks for the info.

 

Is it recommended to use 2nd hand one.? Not much difference  with new ones I've checked. But if part owned will do the job, at least save some money. Already spent 2 grand for my clutch and flywheel and slave cylinder(garage wont clean  contaminated flywheel ). Grrr

 

Cheer..

[Stevey Y]

2 hours ago, YAMAN said:

Thanks for the info.

 

Is it recommended to use 2nd hand one.? Not much difference  with new ones I've checked. But if part owned will do the job, at least save some money. Already spent 2 grand for my clutch and flywheel and slave cylinder(garage wont clean  contaminated flywheel ). Grrr

 

Cheer..

Hi took some cleaning but the second hand unit seems to be doing its job, if you fish about on eBay there are some quite nice examples on eBay for not too much money if you get one stick a torch down the valve end and at least three of the holes if you look from the other end should be virtually clear, thats a good one, next step is get a cheap mixing bowl that will accommodate the whole valve, block the valve end up and treat it to a couple of bottles of carbon clean poured through the holes at the top you can block the valve end with a rolled up rubber glove, leave it to soak for an  hour then pull the glove out and drain, next step spray a can of Mr Muscle down the holes and leave for about four hours using the remainder of the can every hour, then wash it out with hot water I did mine under the tap in the kitchen sink until the water ran clear, the Mrs wasn't impressed but I was especially when I could see torch light through 97% of the holes, last thing I got the garage to do was bung one water pipe up and pressure test it with an airline to make sure it wasn't leaking air from the water jacket, all good, as for the contaminated flywheel thats easy, saturate it in brake cleaner then hit it with a steam cleaner.

Steve.

[RoyC]

20 hours ago, Stevey Y said:

it took them all day just to get the old one out as you have to disconnect a section of the exhaust from the DPF to midway under the car take out that side engine mount and remove the sensors from the bit before the Cat plus the sensor on the bit of pipe you remove, you then have to unplug the DPF pressure sensors as well as about ten other plugs, all this after tripping back most of the bulkhead plastic covers and heat shields to get enough room to work,

I have been having sleepless nights thinking about the garage bill just to remove/replace the EGR if required.

My son came round this morning and together fixed my brake issue.

He borrowed the companies scanning tool and went through the whole car, the only engine code was P0672 2nd cylinder glow plug.

He also showed me where my EGR/cooler was.

It's on top of the engine and easy to get to, so if ever it needs doing shouldn't cost an arm and a leg.

I'll sleep sound tonight.

[Stevey Y]

16 minutes ago, RoyC said:

I have been having sleepless nights thinking about the garage bill just to remove/replace the EGR if required.

My son came round this morning and together fixed my brake issue.

He borrowed the companies scanning tool and went through the whole car, the only engine code was P0672 2nd cylinder glow plug.

He also showed me where my EGR/cooler was.

It's on top of the engine and easy to get to, so if ever it needs doing shouldn't cost an arm and a leg.

I'll sleep sound tonight.

Hi Roy yes thats back in the old days before they got fancy with the Ultra technology, really glad you got the brakes sorted and the glow plug is pretty simple to fix.

Steve.