[JRB'sOilburningCruze]

From a historical maintenance perspective I'm kind of interested in the data on your vehicle i.e. do you drive mostly city or high way miles and about what % city vs hwy, do you buy diesel mostly from high vol truck stops, do you use any diesel fuel additives?

Just wondering whether its the city drivers that are having the most problems with the EGR? My driving is mostly hwy at 60-70 mph at a rate of 120 miles a
day due to work, with only a few local miles on weekends. No problems yet with the EGR and there is 57K miles on the clock. Trying to decide whether I should pull the EGR and clean so that I maintain my goal of the car being available 100% of the time 24/7 with out any unplanned down time except for scheduled "routine" maintenance.

Would consider a short posting of the steps involved for pulling the EGR and any before and after pictures you might have of the cleaning?

I was going to pull mine off and clean, I have 55K on the car now. But, as part of GM's efforts to fix the problems of the P11DC due to the screwed up recall efforts, they put a brand new EGR valve on.

It could not hurt it to pull it off and give it a good cleaning.

 

[Twiztedmods]

From a historical maintenance perspective I'm kind of interested in the data on your vehicle i.e. do you drive mostly city or high way miles and about what % city vs hwy, do you buy diesel mostly from high vol truck stops, do you use any diesel fuel additives?

Just wondering whether its the city drivers that are having the most problems with the EGR? My driving is mostly hwy at 60-70 mph at a rate of 120 miles a
day due to work, with only a few local miles on weekends. No problems yet with the EGR and there is 57K miles on the clock. Trying to decide whether I should pull the EGR and clean so that I maintain my goal of the car being available 100% of the time 24/7 with out any unplanned down time except for scheduled "routine" maintenance.

Would consider a short posting of the steps involved for pulling the EGR and any before and after pictures you might have of the cleaning?

The wife drives it 90% of the time. Every couple months we take a 400 mile trip to visit family down in Oregon, when I drive I average about 75-80 MPH on the interstate, on the highway it's usually 65 MPH. Besides that the rest of the time the car is driven mostly in the small town we live in. Once in a while we drive it to the next town to do our larger grocery shopping and that's probably about 30 miles or so at the most.

I did take pics of the EGR while it was all plugged up, I don't think I have the permissions to post pics because I'm not a paying member at this time. I didn't take any after I cleaned it, I was in a hurry to get it installed to see if that was truly the problem.

As far as pulling the EGR valve, all I did was remove the plastic cover on top of the motor and removed the two T-30 Torx bits that bolt it in, there was a bracket that held a small hard line that caught the ear of the EGR so I removed the two 10mm bolts and it allowed for enough clearance to pull the EGR out of its home. The EGR is located on the back side of the engine, basically if you were to look at your firewall and notice the heater core lines going into the cab, it would be directly across from that on the Engine side (hope that makes sense).

Here is a link to the pic of that EGR. https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/...9/6405680710559721346?authkey=CMy8s7_x_8q_mgE Hope it works...

 

[Gator]

Yep had the EGR bite me at 50000 miles, have 149000 and no trouble since replaced

 

[Rivergoer]

Interesting. I drove my 09 Jetta TDI 183,000 miles with no EGR problem. First CEL on the VW was at 175,000 miles and that was a Differential Pressure Switch @$500. That along with the Buyback offer prompted me to make the leap to Chevy. Despite a water pump failure and lack of spare, I LOVE the Cruze much better than the TDI.

I'm brand new to the Cruze and this forum, all the discussion in this thread and others about the Cruze EGR makes me wonder if Cleaning The EGR should be a maintenance item, like every 50K miles or so? I'm no mechanic and realize comparing the Chevy to the VW is apples to oranges. My Cruze has 64,000 miles and I'm considering pulling/cleaning EGR just to avoid the "non-start" condition at an inconvenient time...has anyone else gone that route and what did you find? Any recommendations AGAINST taking this action? Thanks!

 

[IndyDiesel]

Interesting. I drove my 09 Jetta TDI 183,000 miles with no EGR problem. First CEL on the VW was at 175,000 miles and that was a Differential Pressure Switch @$500. That along with the Buyback offer prompted me to make the leap to Chevy. Despite a water pump failure and lack of spare, I LOVE the Cruze much better than the TDI.

I'm brand new to the Cruze and this forum, all the discussion in this thread and others about the Cruze EGR makes me wonder if Cleaning The EGR should be a maintenance item, like every 50K miles or so? I'm no mechanic and realize comparing the Chevy to the VW is apples to oranges. My Cruze has 64,000 miles and I'm considering pulling/cleaning EGR just to avoid the "non-start" condition at an inconvenient time...has anyone else gone that route and what did you find? Any recommendations AGAINST taking this action? Thanks!

I think have been others that have cleaned the EGR , I don't see a major problem with that. Mine has 26k miles and I haven't had any issues. I at least once a week drive it pretty hard after warmed up.

 

[theonlypheonix]

The wife drives it 90% of the time. Every couple months we take a 400 mile trip to visit family down in Oregon, when I drive I average about 75-80 MPH on the interstate, on the highway it's usually 65 MPH. Besides that the rest of the time the car is driven mostly in the small town we live in. Once in a while we drive it to the next town to do our larger grocery shopping and that's probably about 30 miles or so at the most.

I did take pics of the EGR while it was all plugged up, I don't think I have the permissions to post pics because I'm not a paying member at this time. I didn't take any after I cleaned it, I was in a hurry to get it installed to see if that was truly the problem.

As far as pulling the EGR valve, all I did was remove the plastic cover on top of the motor and removed the two T-30 Torx bits that bolt it in, there was a bracket that held a small hard line that caught the ear of the EGR so I removed the two 10mm bolts and it allowed for enough clearance to pull the EGR out of its home. The EGR is located on the back side of the engine, basically if you were to look at your firewall and notice the heater core lines going into the cab, it would be directly across from that on the Engine side (hope that makes sense).

Here is a link to the pic of that EGR. https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/...9/6405680710559721346?authkey=CMy8s7_x_8q_mgE Hope it works...

Thanks for the info, I'm beginning to conclude that city driving is more prone to EGR clogging then primarily hwy driving base on info posted to this forum? Did you by any chance look at the EGR cooler while you were in the same area?

A while back I read in Diesel World 12/2016 the VW TDI's were clogging by 200K miles, clogged EGR, EGR cooler and intake. They had a complete article with photos on cleaning and the corresponding improvement in performance after cleaning, so much for our so called "CLEAN" diesels!

More recently in 8 LUG HD Truck 3/2017 there was an article about recommended cleaners for EGR coolers, intakes and EGR valves. Out of 5 cleaners tried the top two were Clean-Rite Purple Power and Piston Clean. Among the others included Simple Green ALL PURPOSE , NAPA MACS 6402 Carburetor Cleaner, Mopar EGR System Cleaner. Not sure i would use Purple Power on an EGR that had electronics unless used very carefully.

 

[diesel]

I would imagine it'd be a good idea for me to pull mine off and take a look. I'm sure it's not pristine at 202K miles.

 

[MP81]

I honestly wouldn't touch it, lest doing so causes a problem.

 

[IndyDiesel]

I would imagine it'd be a good idea for me to pull mine off and take a look. I'm sure it's not pristine at 202K miles.

At the worst, you could just replace it as a precaution if it looks nasty and doesn't clean up, it sounds like it can obviously cause a no start situation which might not be fun several hundred miles from home.

 

[Chris Tobin]

Interesting. I drove my 09 Jetta TDI 183,000 miles with no EGR problem. First CEL on the VW was at 175,000 miles and that was a Differential Pressure Switch @$500. That along with the Buyback offer prompted me to make the leap to Chevy. Despite a water pump failure and lack of spare, I LOVE the Cruze much better than the TDI.

I'm brand new to the Cruze and this forum, all the discussion in this thread and others about the Cruze EGR makes me wonder if Cleaning The EGR should be a maintenance item, like every 50K miles or so? I'm no mechanic and realize comparing the Chevy to the VW is apples to oranges. My Cruze has 64,000 miles and I'm considering pulling/cleaning EGR just to avoid the "non-start" condition at an inconvenient time...has anyone else gone that route and what did you find? Any recommendations AGAINST taking this action? Thanks!

I would think that the TDI going longer without EGR clogging than other manufacturers would be a byproduct of their emissions cheating that allowed the cars to run a little dirtier almost all the time so the emission system was not doing as much work... If they left the EGR valve closed more than typically required or expected with an emissions equipped diesel it could go significantly longer before cleaning or replacement.

 

[beaurrr]

Thanks for the info, I'm beginning to conclude that city driving is more prone to EGR clogging then primarily hwy driving base on info posted to this forum? Did you by any chance look at the EGR cooler while you were in the same area?

A while back I read in Diesel World 12/2016 the VW TDI's were clogging by 200K miles, clogged EGR, EGR cooler and intake. They had a complete article with photos on cleaning and the corresponding improvement in performance after cleaning, so much for our so called "CLEAN" diesels!

More recently in 8 LUG HD Truck 3/2017 there was an article about recommended cleaners for EGR coolers, intakes and EGR valves. Out of 5 cleaners tried the top two were Clean-Rite Purple Power and Piston Clean. Among the others included Simple Green ALL PURPOSE , NAPA MACS 6402 Carburetor Cleaner, Mopar EGR System Cleaner. Not sure i would use Purple Power on an EGR that had electronics unless used very carefully.

As to which solvent...
The various "purple" degreasers are exceedingly effective but will damage aluminum some other non-ferrous metals because they contain sodium hydroxide as the active ingredient. The EGR body looks to be made of aluminum, so I would avoid that stuff.
Aerosol brake cleaners (both chlorinated and non-chlorinated) should do the job with a little scrubbing, and they won't damage soft metals.

 

[theonlypheonix]

The various "purple" degreasers are exceedingly effective but will damage aluminum some other non-ferrous metals because they contain sodium hydroxide as the active ingredient... Aerosol brake cleaners (both chlorinated and non-chlorinated) should do the job with a little scrubbing, and they won't damage soft metals.

-
I'm not sure I mentioned "various" types of "Purple" degreasers, :idisagree: but only one type "Purple Power Cleaner/Degreaser" which I cite from 8 LUG HD Truck-3/2017 magazine which they found effective in cleaning various diesel exhaust components.:goodjob: Looking at the Purple label I only saw that it contains diethylene glycol monobutyl ether and surfactants which from my school chemistry class is enough to let me know I need to wear a protective covering when using/handling this stuff, which their label recommends also.:eek7: Surfactants can be used with sodium hydroxide but I saw nothing that would indicate Purple contained sodium hydroxide which is normally associated with sink drain cleaners. I also would not recommend using drain cleaner for cleaning EGR components

. But the label did also mention to check surfaces before using. I'm not a chemist nor do I recommend any cleaner for any cleaning purpose or for cleaning any components in any application.

Note, like all magazines, they write article such as these to sell their magazines.:signs053::eek7:

I also have used brake cleaner for cleaning sensitive electronic diesel MAP sensors to some what more or less effective degree but which I found not effective for cleaning the EGR valve on my '05 Ford 6.0L PS. Sure I could scrape the valve with a Dremel grinder and use no cleaner at all! :llsweatdrop::wtf::banghead:

I just relayed an article I read in a respected diesel magazine which the reader can decide for themselves as to the relevance for any cleaning project they may want to engage in and to determine any relevance and veracity of the article to the cleaning job at bar. ccasion14:

 

[TurboDieselCruze2014]

Fuel filter is new, I have about 1/4 tank of fuel left in the car. I'm about to check the EGR valve now. Thanks for all the input, very much appreciated. Almost forgot, I put a scanner on it after cranking it a few times and it pulled code P0335 - Crankshaft Positions Sensors. Anyone know where this is located?

What did it end up being after checking EGR?

 

[ewyborny]

Was this shortly after a fill up and where do you buy most of your fuel, high volume truck stop or lowest price station off the beaten path?? If high volume truck stop probably not fuel issues. I ran my fuel filter to about 39K with 5% left on the DIC without any noticeable issues but most of my fuel is from high vol truck stops and I always use additives.

Washington State had temp of 53F around 8AM today so I would not expect glow plugs to be an issue. Might require extra cranking to start though if they were not working but should have started with a lot of white smoke.

If everything was normal the day before probably something simple like EGR valve stuck open due carbon or a sensor died due to infant mortality.

I had a no start problem with my Cruze Diesel and saw this entry that said the EGR valve could cause a No Start condition. I replaced the EGR valve and did not connect the plug for the electrical contacts. The Car started and ran with no fault indications. So if you suspect that the EGR valve is stuck open, Remove the electrical plug. The car should start if that was the problem.