I know this has been beat to death and have read a few threads about it, but still not sure. i am getting a code 12, but only after the car starts moving in gear, nothing at ideal and the light goes out after its turned off. starts fine (cold or hot), runs great and seems to have nothing wrong. Does this sound like the correct fix?? i dont want to spend 140 bucks if it not the prob. any help would be great as i am trying to sale the car and want it running perfect for its new home.

 

Does "what" sound like the correct fix?

 

?????

 

ill try and make this as easy as possible. first go under the hood without car running

find the egr valve. about halfway up the egr valve is the part that looks like a metal flying saucer. if you reach under this part there is a diaphram you can push up and down. make sure it moves freely. if it is difficult to push up and dont come back down on its own then you need to clean the egr valve or replace it.

now start the car and go back under the hood. remove the hose from the egr valve. put your finger over the hose and check for vacuum.

if there is vacuum you have a problem with the egr control solenoid, the wiring from the solenoid to the ecu or the ecu itself. i found out my ecu was the problem by removing it then removing the plates from each side of the ecu itself. look for any burn marks or a burning smell coming from the ecu. also check the vacuum hoses there are three main ones i believe. the egr solenoids can be easily found in a junk yard which will save you a fair amount

if there is no vacuum plug the hose back into the valve. now remember the diaphram you pressed with the car off. press it now with the car on. the car should start to idle like complete **** and almost die if it doesn't die. if the idle does not get messed up when you manually lift the valve then you have clogged egr ports. there are a million threads on how to remove/drill/pull the plugs out to access the holes. that is quite a long process though so make friends with the advanced search feature

and again if the car does have a messed up idle/completely dies with the diaphram pushed up and your valve is clean and working properly then you need to go back and check the vacuum hoses, solenoid, wiring, and ecu because that is where your problem is

make sure to reset your ecu or the light will not go away. there is an ecu fuse in the under the hood fuse box

 

hell yeah!!!!!! great advice. i took to line off the egr and nothing changed. hooked up a small hose and put prusure and it started choking and died. so with that being said, it sounds like the solenoid is bad? i will take a prt the box that i think houses it and see what i find. thats why i posted this up, so i would have to spend 150 bucks for nothing. any tips on how to change this out anything i should do or not do?

 

the solenoid is located in the vacuum control box to the left of the throttle body. remove the whole box then change the egr solenoid. unplug all the vacuum hoses that go to the box labeling them with tape so you know where each one goes too. should be a diagram under your hood.
two 10mm bolts, two electrical connectors, a few hoses up top and one on the bottom and the whole box should come out. when changing the solenoid use the correct screwdriver to remove the screws.
junkyard is your best friend for the egr solenoids. get some cargo shorts and something with big pockets and you can walk out with a few of them for free

 

dam it!! i think i have/had two problems. i played around with everything last night and found 1) the EGR is bad 2) the solenoid was stuck and going bad, but is working now. i can hear is clicking when the rpms are up. just my luck!!

 

where does the click come from? go under the hood and rev and listen. your egr is bad? you mean the valve? try cleaning it with brake cleaner. let the stuff soak the inside of it good.

if the solenoid was not working at any point in time there is a very high chance it will do the same thing again.

 

the clicking is coming from the solenoid when the rpms are being raised and i can feel the vac. question, does the soleniod provide + or - persure when active? when i blow on the egr valve, the car dies. if i suck on it, nothing. is that correct? i did notice that the egr vavle seems to have a hard time holding presure and read that is a sign of being bad. i dont think the ports are bad due to when i rebuild the top end about 13k back, i had the intake in a cleaning tank.

 

i think thats backwards. the solenoid provides vacuum via the hose to the egr valve opening the valve at a certain rpm. the vacuum that the solenoid utilizes goes through the cvc(constant vacuum control) that white and green circly thing that is in the vacuum box with the egr solenoid and the map sensor. the cvc gets its vacuum from the intake manifold which has negative(sucking air) pressure.

therefore your egr valve would be working correctly if sucking on it made the car die. ive never heard of one working backwards though. i would say the egr valve itself is in need of replacement unless someone else has experience with one working backwards on these vehicles?

ive never used a cleaning tank before so im not sure how well they work however on my car i would prefer to have the holes opened so i can make sure the holes are cleaned. the passages are really small and all that carbon can be built up in there pretty dam good. my old cd7 was a nightmare the first time i cleaned it and those come with the removable egr passages.

almost forgot i have never heard my solenoid clicking..but if it is working properly and providing vacuum at the right rpm(around 3k? i dont remember) and you dont mind the clicking noise then why waste the money