Carbon Clean EGR Valve

[chevelles240]

This may be a novice question, but could cleaning out my EGR valve potentially make my car not vibrate as much when it is idling?
I have an automatic 2002 Mazda Protege5 with 54,136 miles on it. It is always vibrating and I want to take some reasonable steps in potentially lessening the vibration. It is not an extremely noticeable vibration, but sometimes it vibrates more heavily than other times.

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?94788-How-To-EGR-Removal-and-Cleaning-for-Rough-Idle-Fix

I reviewed the tutorial above, but the only reason I am bringing this up is because I do not know if cleaning the EGR valve would make a difference on an automatic vs a manual. It looks like most people on that thread have a manual.

 

[pcb]

Sea foam

http://seafoamsales.com/

 

[MaxPower]

Unless the EGR is malfunctioning (which shows up as an intermittent rough idle when the engine is warm, usually when bringing the car to a stop), cleaning it will not help. Is the problem that the idle is rough or that vibrations from the engine shake the cabin? It's possible you have a vacuum leak. Inspect the accordion tube from the airbox to the throttle body thoroughly... cracks in this are probably the most common cause of a rough idle on Proteges.

 

[chevelles240]

Sea foam

http://seafoamsales.com/

Thank you for the hyperlink and manual cut out. I will go down the list and see what I can find, even though 3/4ths of that I don't know how to check. Time to do some research. (lol2)

Unless the EGR is malfunctioning (which shows up as an intermittent rough idle when the engine is warm, usually when bringing the car to a stop), cleaning it will not help. Is the problem that the idle is rough or that vibrations from the engine shake the cabin? It's possible you have a vacuum leak. Inspect the accordion tube from the airbox to the throttle body thoroughly... cracks in this are probably the most common cause of a rough idle on Proteges.

MaxPower, Yes, vibrations shake the cabin all of the time. I really only notice it when the car is stopped, but It probably still vibrates when it is moving, but I wouldn't notice because the car is moving over a street.

I will check the tube from the airbox to the throttle body thoroughly and see if any cracks are on the tube. Any other recommendations?

 

[hornsfan10609]

You may have a bad motor mount or two causing excess vibration, keep in mind a cheap aftermarket mount can feel like a solid mount due to cheap materials and lack of R&D.

 

[915_P5]

+2 on the motor mounts all of mine are bad and it make my car shake like crazy

you may have a bad motor mount or two causing excess vibration, keep in mind a cheap aftermarket mount can feel like a solid mount due to cheap materials and lack of r&d.

 

[chevelles240]

I am thinking it may be a motor mount issue as well, but I need to test that out somehow.

I cleaned off my air intake tube and look what I found. View the links below to see what I am talking about.

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?res...uthkey=!AD75R8xqVy2IpOA&v=3&ithint=photo,.jpg

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?res...uthkey=!AI-ir2YiBR2sgiE&v=3&ithint=photo,.jpg

I wonder if those cracks are potentially causing air leakage. Should I just purchase a new one exactly like it? I know a lot of people say they install "cold air intake" tubes, but I know nothing about them, and they are pretty expensive.

 

[rit14623]

This may be a novice question, but could cleaning out my EGR valve potentially make my car not vibrate as much when it is idling?
I have an automatic 2002 Mazda Protege5 with 54,136 miles on it. It is always vibrating and I want to take some reasonable steps in potentially lessening the vibration. It is not an extremely noticeable vibration, but sometimes it vibrates more heavily than other times.

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?94788-How-To-EGR-Removal-and-Cleaning-for-Rough-Idle-Fix

I reviewed the tutorial above, but the only reason I am bringing this up is because I do not know if cleaning the EGR valve would make a difference on an automatic vs a manual. It looks like most people on that thread have a manual.

If it was rough idling, then the EGR valve may be dirty. If it is vibrating while driving, then it is something else. I had the same issue. Getting on the accelerator would eliminate the vibrating/rough idling. It was kind of crazy to be revving my engine while stopped at a light just to avoid rough idling, but I did it until I replaced it.
I did clean it out once and that fixed it for almost a year. Then, it came back, I replaced it with a new one and the problem went away. I did not do the Canadian EGR valve do-hickey-jobby though.

 

[lowlevel]

I reviewed the tutorial above, but the only reason I am bringing this up is because I do not know if cleaning the EGR valve would make a difference on an automatic vs a manual. It looks like most people on that thread have a manual.

If the EGR's not working right, you'de likely get a check engine light... I would guess the 'trans/motor mount' mainly, but they're all probably getting bad by now..
Try just putting it in Neutral when stopped/idling... is it much better then?

 

[chevelles240]

If it was rough idling, then the EGR valve may be dirty. If it is vibrating while driving, then it is something else. I had the same issue. Getting on the accelerator would eliminate the vibrating/rough idling. It was kind of crazy to be revving my engine while stopped at a light just to avoid rough idling, but I did it until I replaced it.
I did clean it out once and that fixed it for almost a year. Then, it came back, I replaced it with a new one and the problem went away. I did not do the Canadian EGR valve do-hickey-jobby though.

I don't think it vibrates when I'm driving, but I did notice that my steering wheel kind of shakes just a tiny bit now because I recently rotated my tires. So that is something I'd probably rule out as being caused by a dirty EGR valve. The car does still vibrate in drive and not neutral or park when at a stop light, so that may be because of a dirty EGR valve.

If the EGR's not working right, you'de likely get a check engine light... I would guess the 'trans/motor mount' mainly, but they're all probably getting bad by now..
Try just putting it in Neutral when stopped/idling... is it much better then?

Lowlevel,

When the car is in neutral at a stop light then the vibrating goes completely away; same thing when in park as well. The car just vibrates a bit more when it is in drive and stopped at a traffic light.
I replaced the air intake tube with a brand new one and it seems like the vibrating has been reduced, but I haven't driven the car enough to have a final verdict on that.

I did attempt to take the EGR valve off so I could clean it, but that is a huge hassle... Here is a video so you can see what I am talking about. I could not get the dang connector off of the valve so I could try to attempt taking both bolts off... Maybe it's too cold outside right now and when it warms up again then I could give it another shot.

I checked the 2 front motor mounts and they "appear" to be fine, but I was not able to get a good view of the rear mounts.

Lastly, if I do get the EGR valve off, would it be sufficient to clean it out with a tooth brush and some sea foam? I know there is a tutorial on this board stating the individual used brake cleaner, but right now I just have sea foam. Would it also be smart to attempt brushing the inside of the throttle body with sea foam using a brush?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ODUJtIJQboc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>