Need Help With EGR valve on 1.6d VOLVO v50

colmmck

Hi,
im told the EGR valve on my car could need replacing, and have since been told that it can actually be removed and clean out, so iv located it, (i think) behind the fuel filter, and have bought a new gasket to refit it, but, i see some kind if clamp ring on the pipe leading from it to the cooler, does anyone know how to remove this and do i need to replce it or re-use it.
Any other info on this job would be greatly appreciated,
im more an old ford/ vw kind of person, this will be my first go at a new deisil engine, fingers crossed.
C.
ps, any questions on old fords/ vw, just ask, ill try to help.



On second thoughts i think i should explain the problem,
the car was driving fine up till last weekend, Sat morning, got in and drove, all seemed ok as i drove off until i put my foot down, no power, and wont rev above 2900, no warning lights or messages, no different noises and no smoke,nothing differerent at all ,just no power...

I had the dpf done (refilled) by dealer last summer after several warning lights came on, have had other warning messages since, but solved it by re-fixing all the electrical connectors on the panel at the passenger foot well.

colmmck

Update;

After some searching on the net, i found the v50 1.6 d turbo has the same engine as some fords,(c max) and peugot.. so a you tube vid on the c max EGR removing and cleaning showed me all i needed to know (well 99%), so having taken some advice from others i started to investigate my engine bay. one tip i got was to listen to the EGR valve for a ticking sound right after you turn off the engine,this is when the ECU runs a check on it, so if it clicks/ ticks,for a few seconds then its working ok , NOT true.! (dont use this method folks)

So i located the EGR, (its at the back right hand side of the engine right behind the fuel filter,) removing it was tricky,
on removing it i found that one of the 2 bolts was loose and exhaust fumes had been leaking out, i could see the blacked area around the bolt the other side was clean , this had to be contributing to my problem i thought.

Now having got it out it didnt look to bad, some dry black carbon build up, i then took off the top black plastic electrical part, inside this part was worse, and yes, it was sticking, it did turn some, but was sticking about half way, hence the clicking i had heard,
with a lot of brake cleaner and elbow grease i got it cleaned up and moving freely again, replaced it back in to engine, even harder to do than the removing of it, and hey presto, the engine was just as bad as it was, a slight change for the better in the idling and driving power but nothing great, and still wont go above 3000 rpm .
I then went through as many electrical conectors as i could find and cleaned them with contact cleaner, i visually checked what hoses i could get at, nothing that i could see was wrong there either, i moved on to the air filter, and Mass Air Flow sensor, filter was ok ,no too dirty, but from the MAF back towards the turbo, there is oil on the inside of the pipe, is this normal ?????, (oil seems to be on the sensor too, this cannot be good) so is this my problem ?, tried to get the specific cleaner for the MAF sensor, but was unable to get it any where locally,
im going to change the fuel filter on monday as this could also be the cause,
so far a lot of time spent and no better off, at least iv ruled out a few things,
ANY help or advise would be greatly appreciated.

shamwari

I had that "wouldn't rev over 3000rpm" craic with a 1.6 TDCi Focus. It can have many causes, and in our case there was no EML on but scanning it with a high end scan tool there was a fault code for the MAF. To cut a long story short, the MAF was covered in oil and cleaning it and a good drive got us operational again. The fact that the MAF was covered in oil in the first place required a main dealer ECU software update to modify EGR operation. The original operation was causing back surge which blew oil back up the intake onto the MAF. The software thankfully update took care of that.

Looking at your particular issue and mindful of the engine you have, I wonder if there a blockage in the exhaust, particularly at the cat or DPF? I have heard tales of exhaust gas escaping from the EGR being caused by this. If you can temporarily disconnect the exhuast at the turbo and see what effect it has on the running. Note that there is a collar type clamp holding the turbo onto DPF, and if you open this, you will need to replace it as it goes out of shape and doesn't re-seal correctly.

colmmck

Thanks Sham for the reply,

could it be that the EGR being partly stuck and also not having been fitted on correctly, has caused a similar issue as yours, blowing oil at the MAF sensor.
If it is ,then i think iv fixed the EGR issue, now i have to clean or replace the MAF sensor.
any suggestions what to use for clean a MAF sensor.

shamwari

colmmck wrote: »

could it be that the EGR being partly stuck and also not having been fitted on correctly, has caused a similar issue as yours, blowing oil at the MAF sensor.

Not in my case no. The cause of the problem was that a stall and backsurge in the intake happened under certain circumstances by the operation of the EGR, which brought the oil vapours back up to the MAF. The operation of the EGR was modified by a software update and that took care of our issue. I doubt if this is an issue with you, but a quick inspection of the MAF will show if it's oil covered or not. Some carb cleaner followed by a light blast of dry compressed air is the recommended way of cleaning. I don't think its possible to misfit the EGR but I could be wrong.

Have you had a code scan or live data read on your car? Someone using the correct scan tool and who knows what they are doing will make far more progress than second guessing what's happening from the side lines.

Again I point your previous comment above about fumes escaping around the EGR....could there be something else wrong other than the EGR or MAF.

colmmck

the fumes escaping from the EGR was due to one of the 2 bolts being loose, it would have fallen out completly , but it was resting against a pipe which held it in place, it must not have been tightened correctly my someone previously. .

Just removed the MAF sensor, oil all over the place in the hose and on the sensor, oil pretty much from the sensor right back to the turbo, iv cleaned the sensor, (electrical contact cleaner used), and the hose, replaced it and its improved a little, drove about 5 mile, still wont rev above 3000rpm, and cant get above 120kph , still a big lack of power, it feels like the turbo is about to kick in but then stops,
im wondering , if iv fixed the issue, ( stuck egr, dirty maf) will the ECU need to be reset in order for it to get out of safe/limp mode.
also it still could be a dirty fuel filter.

Going to a garage tommorow evening, for diagnostics & fuel filter replacement. I think iv done as much as i can.

Fingers crossed !!!

magentis

sounds like it might be the MAP sensor?

colmmck

Took it to A Garage today, and told the mechanic what i had already done, he connected it to diagnostics and could see a lot of error codes logged, ( A LOT ) he cleared them all and told me to take it for a quick drive to see what new errors would be logged, i took it out the gate , put my foot down & it took off up the road like a rocket, wheels spinning , better than it ever went,i drove back and told him that it was back to normal , problem solved...... it appears that i had fixed it over the weekend by cleaning the EGR valve & MAF sensor, but the ECU was still holding the error codes and not allowing the car to come out of safe/limp mode.

I dont know which was to blame (EGR/MAF)......
but its good to know that after you fix a problem on a Volvo ,you must tell it the problem is gone by clearing the errors via diagnostics.
Cheers for the advise , & i hope this might help some one else .
C.