# Cleaning out Intake Manifold & EGR



## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

I have been having some issues with my EGR recently so thought I'd clean it and whilst I was at it, I decided to remove the Intake Manifold to give that a good clean too.

Took about 4 hours with 2 1/2 of that crud removal.

I used various screw drivers and bendy things to scrape crud out, contact cleaner and wet and dry.

EGR Before










EGR After










Carbon from EGR










Intake Manifold










Carbon from Intake Manifold :doublesho










And finally me turning into Papa Lazarou










Car is driving fine now, can't really notice much of a difference, but I was having smoking and things at idle from the EGR, but it seems ok now, will monitor the situation :thumb:


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## Rich (Oct 26, 2005)

I am shocked your doing that in the house !


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## Phil H (May 14, 2006)

great work, thats a lot of crud


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## stoneyfordni (Aug 28, 2006)

looks like a VAG one ? longitudinal lump ?

id love to do mine but space is tight to get at the manifold studs 

how many miles is on that if you mind my asking ?


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## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

Rich said:


> I am shocked your doing that in the house !


:lol:

I would have done it outside but it was raining.


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## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

stoneyfordni said:


> looks like a VAG one ? longitudinal lump ?
> 
> id love to do mine but space is tight to get at the manifold studs
> 
> how many miles is on that if you mind my asking ?


Yep, 1.9 TDi Audi A4, 4 cylinder. 69k on the clock.

The inlet manifold was a little tricky on mine, but with a set sequence of taking bits apart, it wasn't too bad to get at.


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## Rich (Oct 26, 2005)

Neil_S said:


> :lol:
> 
> I would have done it outside but it was raining.


Dedication ! :thumb:


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## stoneyfordni (Aug 28, 2006)

have you the egr disabled- easiest way is to cut the vacuum pipe somewhere along its length and join and block it at the same time- i used a 3mm drill bit shank, SEAT never noticed , its important to keep it electrically connected or else a CEL is illuminated - should limit the gunking up in the future


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## Detail My Ride (Apr 19, 2006)

Somebody's missus wasn't very happy with all of that all over the kitchen table


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## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

stoneyfordni said:


> have you the egr disabled- easiest way is to cut the vacuum pipe somewhere along its length and join and block it at the same time- i used a 3mm drill bit shank, SEAT never noticed , its important to keep it electrically connected or else a CEL is illuminated - should limit the gunking up in the future


EGR is still enabled, although I believe it effectively stops working when you yank out the vacuum hose.

It wasn't all that dirty to be honest so perfectly happy to have it connected and in use, just so long as it works.


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## trionic (Oct 3, 2006)

That's a lot of carbon.

Some engine shops still use powerful solvents to remove carbon and other deposits from engine parts. You could also have the manifold bead-blasted to bring it up as new.

EGR is just an emissions device and stops working when it becomes blocked with carbon deposits. Removal of the vac line will prevent the EGT valve from operating but may leave your engine with a massive vacuum leak.

Seat may sell a kit of blanking plates so the EGR system can be completely removed.


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## stoneyfordni (Aug 28, 2006)

they dont have a kit 

spot on , VACC leak - hence block the bugger 

only works on part throttle , so a regular trip into the red zone cleans its cage out


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## [email protected] (Jan 9, 2006)

I actually saw a rover 25 diesel the other day coked up like that owner said my car drives poorly, after a clear up it was fine so good work


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## stoneyfordni (Aug 28, 2006)

you think yours was clogged ,

this is clogged


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## Exclusive Car Care (Jan 14, 2007)

Now That Is A Dirty Job... I Take It Your Not Married Or Living With A Girlfriend Then Neil, There Is No Way I Would Be Able To Do That Inside The House. The Missus Would Go Off Her Head..


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## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

Gleamingkleen said:


> Now That Is A Dirty Job... I Take It Your Not Married Or Living With A Girlfriend Then Neil, There Is No Way I Would Be Able To Do That Inside The House. The Missus Would Go Off Her Head..


You got that right, I can almost hear the shouting! :lol:

Well unfortunately my problem isn't solved, the car still is playing up with the vacuum hose to the EGR plugged in.

I have a feeling it is the N18 Solenoid that is causing me problems, some diagnosis tomorrow and then off to the Audi dealer to order a new solenoid.


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## stoneyfordni (Aug 28, 2006)

if you swap the N18 and the N75 (beside each other iirc on the bulkhead) no boost after that would mean a dead valve ( same part nums ) 

however , you wont notice a dead N18 as it just means the actual EGR duty cycle will be 0% ( tho vagcom wont see this )the valve will just not open when requested 

what is wrong with the car ? if you need help gimme a hollar 

stephen


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## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

Thanks Stephen, cast your eyes over this and let me know what you think:

I disconnected the electrical connector to the N18 this morning with all vacuum hoses connected and car works perfectly, just like it does when I disconnect the vacuum hose from the top of the EGR to the N18.

I then did some searching and some people are suggesting that the N18 can become stuck in either open or closed state and that at cold idle, it should not be applying vacuum to the hose.

I disconnected the hose to the top of the EGR and started the engine, on putting a finger over the vacuum hose I can feel definate vacuum on the line, sliding this on the top of the EGR, stalls the car within a second.

I think the N18 is screwed. I could switch the N75 with the N18, but to be honest I'd rather not touch that at the moment considering my recent run of bad luck.

I have ordered a replacement N18, only £20 so not too concerned if it turns out not to be that, but all signs suggest it could well be.

No codes or anything from vag-com.


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## Andy_Green (Oct 27, 2005)

nice work neil, cleaned my EGR valve (mk4 golf tdi 130) a few months back, looked alot worse than yours, closer to the example stoneyfordni has posted but then it has done over 115k miles. Would have liked to get the manifold off but that was a far more tricky job than i had time for. The amount of gunk thats in there is crazy and with it being oily carbon deposits the mess it makes is crazy also.

Quick info on what the EGR valve does;

_"The factory fitted exhaust gas recirculation system has been applied to all modern diesel and petrol engines for some years. The basic principal behind the factory part is to allow some of the exhaust gasses to enter into the inlet system, essentially helping to control the emission out put of the vehicle. However, this is not necessary as diesels are not measured on CO2 emission out put, but particulate (soot). There are two main draw backs from having this on your car. One, is that by allowing hot exhaust gas to pass back in to your inlet system you lower the effective combustion achieved, as an engine will always combust better on cold dense air (see Allard Intercoolers). Secondly, the soot from EGR mixes with the oil vapor produced by the turbo and forms a paste which sticks to the inlet manifold and ports and reduces the flow, in effect causing the engine to strangle itself. In our EGR replacement kit you receive a blanking plate which fixes to the exhaust manifold to block off the point where the gas returns from, and a large bore pipe that attaches to the inlet manifold allowing you to reconnect your boost hose."_

If you want/interested in a replacement (well this link is for the golf) then try Allard here


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## stoneyfordni (Aug 28, 2006)

well if that valve is applying max vacc , dont do as i said :S , as thatll shut the actuator shut and cause an over boost - but would prove ur theory - have never seen a N valve go closed circuit as most go open circuit and do nothing 

just bung the pipe up  , dont need it anyhows lol


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## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

stoneyfordni said:


> well if that valve is applying max vacc , dont do as i said :S , as thatll shut the actuator shut and cause an over boost - but would prove ur theory - have never seen a N valve go closed circuit as most go open circuit and do nothing
> 
> just bung the pipe up  , dont need it anyhows lol


Going to stick a Golf tee in it until the new one arrives :thumb:


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## Brazo (Oct 27, 2005)

Never knew you were so technically minded Neil!! I'd say it looks good but tbh I wouldn't know :lol: Just taken me 30 mins to fit new head light bulbs


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## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

:lol:

I love all this stuff, although I'll never clean these in the house again, the carbon is so difficult to clean, my hands still have some ingrained dirt on them.


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