How To: EGR Removal and Cleaning for Rough Idle Fix

hopeful said:
I can imagine this only happens to people who beat on their motors more. the carbon build up comes from excess hydrocarbons in the exhaust, either unburnt fuel (most likely coming from WOT situations) or even worse, burning oil.

i bet grandmas driving the auto p5's dont get this problem at all. I'm a firm beleiver in that I cause all my own vehicle problems.
Click to expand...

throwing all those CEL's and everything for doing crazy stuff with our cars.....

i cleaned mine last month and it was sooooo bad after many CEL's and stuff......

i had mazda throw a new one in at 30K (TSB) and I was around 51K when this one got bad........

cleaned her and she runs great now........

-R
 
What's considered rough idle? Mine idles around 700-800, and fluctuates a little bit, but not too much. The idle does seem a bit low, not high enough to minimize vibration while idling, but it doesn't make any sudden large changes.

I'm thinking about doing this just for the hell of it while I'm slowly doing the 30k maintenance one item at a time, but I'm a total car newbie. Most extensive work I'v done is change spark plugs. Generally pretty good with small mechanical/electrical stuff, but I've gotta ask a few stupid questions:
1) Where/what is the throttle body? (Where should I look on this picture)
2) What needs to be taken off before I can get at the valve?
 
on the engine, follow the intake manifold (the piece of metal coming out of the car facing the rear) and follow the stock intake pictured (the piece of black plastic coming into the intake manifold). Where the two meet and have a party is the throttle body.
 
clicknext said:
What's considered rough idle? Mine idles around 700-800, and fluctuates a little bit, but not too much. The idle does seem a bit low, not high enough to minimize vibration while idling, but it doesn't make any sudden large changes.
Click to expand...

this idle is normal.....if the EGR valve is really dirty and getting stuck open when engine is fully warmed your idle will go down to around 300-500 and eventually not even idle.......
 
benzete has just replied to a thread you have subscribed to entitled - How To: EGR Removal and Cleaning, Rough Idle Fix - in the How-To forum of Mazda Forums.

This thread is located at:
http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=94788&goto=newpost

Here is the message that has just been posted:
***************
man those bolts are impossible to get to, gonna try home depot or sears on the weekend and get a small ratchet and try again possibly. Not to mention for some reason i had problems getting the plug out, whether it was my own stupidity or because the button didnt have much play. Actually, (too lazy to backspace) since i'm going taking it to Nick's shop on friday i'll just have him do it.
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Not sure why the post is gone. Either way, I used this ratched to break those SOB bolts loose.

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=TOOL&pid=00944815000&subcat=Ratchets


 
clicknext said:
What's considered rough idle? Mine idles around 700-800, and fluctuates a little bit, but not too much. The idle does seem a bit low, not high enough to minimize vibration while idling, but it doesn't make any sudden large changes.

I'm thinking about doing this just for the hell of it while I'm slowly doing the 30k maintenance one item at a time, but I'm a total car newbie. Most extensive work I'v done is change spark plugs. Generally pretty good with small mechanical/electrical stuff, but I've gotta ask a few stupid questions:
1) Where/what is the throttle body? (Where should I look on this picture)
2) What needs to be taken off before I can get at the valve?
Click to expand...


it starts out this way, and progressively gets worse, you'll notice the engine not being able to keep a steady pace while driving soon, then the stalling starts happening, clean it now it'll only help anyways.
 
I hat the adjustable head on the ratchet at like 45 degrees,a nd just jad to find the 1% of free play to get it to pop loose just one click. Then slowly work it out. It is a PIA, even if the bolts are not rusty.
 
Subscribing, I have 62k miles on my car. Idles and runs rough. I will let you guys know how it works for me. Great how to by the way.
 
I think I'll be doing this again tomorrow afternoon while I'm under the hood anyway doing my timing belt. When I removed my CAI and installed my SRI last weekend I took the EGR valve off to clean it just for the hell of it. At nearly 59k miles my idle was smooth as could be (after removing the AWR front motor mount) but with everyone saying they needed it at 20-30k and with the way I drive my car, I thought it couldn't hurt.

I stripped three of the 4 screws to separate the two parts of the valve, so I just tried spraying brake cleaner in through the two holes.. a fair bit of dirty stuff came out, I just kept spraying until it got clear. I put it back in, and ... well now my idle sucks.

At first it was just idling a bit low, but now if I ever take the car up above 4k RPM and disengage the clutch it will stall on command. It idles at 500 RPM when warmed up and all my in car electronics dim, including the horrible beeping wrath of my Beltronics radar detector warning me about low voltage.

I'll give it a go tomorrow by letting it soak in the pb blaster for a good hour while I'm working on the timing belt and then I'll use vice grips to pry that sucker apart. I'll try to remember to buy some "throttle body cleaner" too, and hopefully I can find a place with NGK plugs since I last replaced mine at 27 or 30k.
 
zverg said:
I think I'll be doing this again tomorrow afternoon while I'm under the hood anyway doing my timing belt. When I removed my CAI and installed my SRI last weekend I took the EGR valve off to clean it just for the hell of it. At nearly 59k miles my idle was smooth as could be (after removing the AWR front motor mount) but with everyone saying they needed it at 20-30k and with the way I drive my car, I thought it couldn't hurt.

I stripped three of the 4 screws to separate the two parts of the valve, so I just tried spraying brake cleaner in through the two holes.. a fair bit of dirty stuff came out, I just kept spraying until it got clear. I put it back in, and ... well now my idle sucks.

At first it was just idling a bit low, but now if I ever take the car up above 4k RPM and disengage the clutch it will stall on command. It idles at 500 RPM when warmed up and all my in car electronics dim, including the horrible beeping wrath of my Beltronics radar detector warning me about low voltage.

I'll give it a go tomorrow by letting it soak in the pb blaster for a good hour while I'm working on the timing belt and then I'll use vice grips to pry that sucker apart. I'll try to remember to buy some "throttle body cleaner" too, and hopefully I can find a place with NGK plugs since I last replaced mine at 27 or 30k.
Click to expand...

sounds like its not torqued back in all the way. i had a screw fall out of mine and it idled like crap...
 
zverg said:
I
I stripped three of the 4 screws to separate the two parts of the valve, so I just tried spraying brake cleaner in through the two holes.. a fair bit of dirty stuff came out, I just kept spraying until it got clear. I put it back in, and ... well now my idle sucks.
Click to expand...

i used vice grips to get two of mine off......
stripped them....

-r
 
mp3wannabe said:
sounds like its not torqued back in all the way. i had a screw fall out of mine and it idled like crap...
Click to expand...

At the time it felt like it was torqued down as much as it was before. I'll find out this afternoon though. Thanks
 
zverg said:
At the time it felt like it was torqued down as much as it was before. I'll find out this afternoon though. Thanks
Click to expand...

Everything was nice and tight. I went at it with Gumout Throttle Body Cleaner and put it back in, and while I was under the hood ripped out the NGK Iridiums that look toasted and put NGK V-Power (under 2 dollars each) in.

Idles like the first time I ever drove it now.

Oh and the gasket on the EGR.. is it likely that it is fused onto my intake manifold? Of course I can't see the intake manifold side of the mounting surface but feeling around with my hand it didn't feel like there was any gasket there.

Maybe I'll order one from the stealership and next time I'm under there I'll replace it. I'll just stick it in my large box of OEM parts I need to replace when I get the chance. I even ordered an OEM oil drain plug washer because my car is still rocking the original.
 
how much was the oem drain plug gasket? the tools at autozone can't ever get me the right one...
 
mp3wannabe said:
how much was the oem drain plug gasket? the tools at autozone can't ever get me the right one...
Click to expand...

Yeah I tried Advance Auto Parts and they gave me one with a PLASTIC washer. For some reason it didn't click with me that it would melt and I leaked a bit of oil the next day. I think the OEM one was like a dollar, I don't remember the name of the web site where I got it it's just some parts web site that has all sorts of OEM and generic replacement parts.
 
Took about an hour for me to complete this task. Never attempted it before. There was quite a bit of carbon built up inside. The valve and spring was still sitting well and the spring mechanism wasn't sticking. I will try to clean the throttle solenoid next when I get the little star tool it takes to remove the thing.
 
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