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Your car's idling weird, maybe stalling
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at red lights, or it feels like it's
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choking when you hit the gas. Yeah,
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could be your EGR valve acting up. Hey,
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I'm Tom from Car Justify. Been wrenching
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on cars for years and today we're
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talking all about the symptoms of a bad
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EGR valve and what you can do about it
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without losing your mind or your
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paycheck. All right, real quick. The
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EGR, that's exhaust gas recirculation.
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Valve helps reduce emissions by sending
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some of the exhaust gases back into the
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engine to reburn. Sounds weird, I know,
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but it keeps your engine running cleaner
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and cooler. When it's working right, you
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won't even notice it. But when it goes
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bad, oh, you'll notice. First up, rough
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idling. That shaky, uneven engine vibe
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when you're stopped. Classic bad EGR
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symptom. What's happening is the valve
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might be stuck open, letting too much
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exhaust back in when the engine doesn't
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want it. Your engine gets confused, the
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air fuel mix is off, and boom, rough
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idle or even a stall. I had a customer
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once who thought they needed a new
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transmission because the car kept dying
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in traffic. Nope, just the EGR. Next, if
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your engine starts pinging or knocking,
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like little marbles rattling under the
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hood, that's another clue. A stuck
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closed EGR can cause combustion temps to
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spike, and that leads to knock. It's
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annoying, sure, but long-term it can
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actually damage your engine if you
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ignore it. So, yeah, definitely don't
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brush that one off. You might also
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notice a drop in fuel economy. A faulty
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EGR messes with the air fuel balance and
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your engine ends up burning more gas
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than it needs to. If you're filling up
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more often, but your driving habits
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haven't changed, that's a flag right
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there. And hey, gas isn't exactly cheap,
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so fixing that valve could actually save
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you money. Another big one, check engine
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light. Yep, I know that thing comes on
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for everything, but in this case, an EGR
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problem will usually throw a code. Grab
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yourself an OBD scanner. Even the cheap
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ones work fine. And look for codes like
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PCUS 401 or Pier 402. Those are lowflow
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or excessive flow errors, and they're
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your engine's way of telling you, "Hey,
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something's wrong with my breathing."
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Last one, acceleration issues. If you
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hit the gas and your car hesitates or
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bogs down, especially at lower speeds,
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that could mean your EGR is stuck open
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and flooding the combustion chamber with
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exhaust. Not great. This one trips
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people up all the time cuz it feels like
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a fuel or spark issue, but nope, it's
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just dirty exhaust gumming up the
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system. So, what can you do? Well,
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first, don't panic. Sometimes it's just
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carbon buildup. You can remove the EGR
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valve and clean it with some throttle
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body cleaner or carb spray. Just make
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sure it's dry before you slap it back
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on. If it's electronically controlled
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and cleaning doesn't help, might be time
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to replace it. They're usually not too
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pricey and honestly not too hard to swap
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out on most cars. All right, let's recap
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real quick. Symptoms of a bad EGR valve.
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Rough idle, knocking sounds, worse gas
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mileage, check engine light with flow
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related codes, and poor acceleration. If
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you're seeing one or more of these, pop
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that hood and give your EGR a look. Hope
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that helped you out. If it did, do me a
3:04
favor, hit that like button and
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subscribe for more no fluff car help.
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I've got more stuff coming to save your
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ride and your wallet. Catch you in the
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next one. Stay safe out there.
