EGR Computer Code Service Engine Light

98 SL Manual 112K : The Service Engine Soon light came on Friday 10/16. I
brought it to Precision Tune on Saturday 10/17 to find out the code. It ran
$20 with a coupon (regular $54).

They said it was the EGR valve and would be $135 for the part, $85 for
labor. I scheduled an appointment to have it done next Saturday.

QUESTION:
I have been driving for three days since and the light has not come back on.
If it doesn't come back on, do I need the work? Could it have just been an
odd occurence?

 

Richard,

Your EGR valve is plugged and will act up again. I was able to easily
remove my son's EGR on his '96 SL1 (remove the air cleaner intake, remove an
electrical connector, and two bolts) and see the incredible amount of
coke/soot that had developed over the years.

The part is easily cleanable. I used a long thing flat blade screwdriver to
chip it off the sides of the valve body. I then used a small wire brush and
dremmel tool to clean it and polish the sides once they were clean. After
it was cleaned out, the valve no longer stuck when moved manually.

That was a year ago. Total cost of the fix was about $3 for the new EGR
gasket.

YMMV. Good luck!

Bob

PS Worst case you can buy the part and put it in yourself if you have a
metric socket set. It should take about 15-30 minutes tops.

 

I sometimes don't even bother with the gasket. 'been using Hi-Temp RTV
(orange stuff).

Some of the 'modern' EGRs can't be manually activated. The older ones had
some means you could open the poppet valve by either squeezing the diaphragm
or pushing against a groove with a screwdriver. The idea was to open the
valve manually at idle and see if the RPMs dropped to indicate an egr flow.
If they didn't drop, one of the passages in the manifold was likely plugged
or the valve itself was crudded up.
Now many of the valves are electrically activated (instead of vacuum) with
a position feedback transducer and either can fail or become intermittent.

 

Thanks for the replies!

The light still hasn't come back. When (if?) it does, I think I'll just get
the part and save the money on labor. It looks like a pretty straightforward
job in my Chilton's. Any caveats?

Thanks again,
Richard

 

It is incredibly simple... so simple that I can't believe anyone quoted $85
unless they have a minimum of an hour for any work of any kind. After
you've done the job enjoy a nice dinner somewhere nice with someone you
enjoy to celebrate your accomplishment.

I would suggest you call around and make sure the replacement EGR is in
stock, then (provided you have alternative transportation) take the old EGR
out, look it over, and make a determination on if you can clean it out
before you purchase the replacement. FYI, It took me about 20-30 minutes
to do this myself, and once cleaned up, it operated like new (it was easy to
see that it was sticking when operated manually immediately after removing
it) and has not been a problem since then. (You may well be able to save
the $135 for the part as well...)

Good luck!

Bob