Carbon Build-up
 

My "Check Engine" light came on last Friday, I just had a body kit put on, so I was pretty bummed that something was REALLY wrong with the car. My car has 82,000 miles + change on it. I take it in to my Mazda dealership and it turns out, the EGR valve, EGR intake and Throttle Body are clogged with exhaust carbon. I was wondering if anyone else has had similar problems an what they did to remedy and prevent it from happening again? Thanks guys.

back when my cousin had her neon that had the similar problem to yours i used a formula called "Sea Foam", it comes in a bottle green in color, almost smells like pure gasoline, and your put 1/3 of it through your engine oil, the other 1/3 in your gas tank and the other 1/3 fed through your intake through your throlle body.

now i did this once and worked awesome, soon i noticed the car was idling much smoothly and was picking up very steadily when i stepped on the gas.

so you might want to think about that, I would do more research though before i put such a thing in a Mazda. I'm sure if anyone has used it before would reply as well..

and, by the way, i bought it at a NAPA store.. costs about 6 bucks i belive.

take care,
-Denham

Thanks dude, I'll look it up.

If your EGR valve is just dirty you should remove it from the car and soak it in a tub of brake parts cleaner until the tub fills with a sooty black haze. Then with a wire brush scrub it out as best you can. For the TB use a few quick bursts of Carb cleaner with the TB open and closed. Make sure to hold a rag underneath as carb cleaner will destroy plastics if it spills.

If you're looking to clean your intake manifold I reccomend buying a bottle of "Berryman's Chem-tool". You can vaproize into the intake with the car running to fully clean out the IM and valves. Also, if you're looking for fuel injector cleaner use "BG's 44K". I buy it in bulk from my local honda dealer. It's what they use and works like a charm.

hope that helps.

Thanks Rod, guys. We ended up taking it to the dealership for them to take care of. It ended up that the EGR valve was internally locked up from the carbon and they had to replace it. Total Cost: $523.11. According to them the replacement of the EGR valve wasn't covered by warranty because it's "wear" item status. In the immortal words of Will Smith in "I, Robot:" "ACHOO! Oh, sorry, I'm allergic to bullshit :bs: . Anyway, they did reccomend that I clean it out every 15k or so. I'll be taking yor advice then. I appreciate it.

whoa....if you had soaked it in the brake clean I bet it would've "unstuck". Glad to hear you're up and running though.

I thought I recalled EGR and emissions equipment being covered by a 100,000 mile warranty? And they charged $523 to replace an EGR valve? I'm not familiar with the EGR system on our cars, but that sounds a bit ridiculous.

We've used Sea Foam on all of our "high mileage" vehicles and it seems to really work!

Yeah, I agree, it was 189 and change to replace the valve itself, the 523 came from the full servicing.

I'm battling with them right now beacause I agree that the EGR valve itself should have been covered under my extended warranty. The manager that I talked to origionally at the dealership was a smug ass-wipe who told me that I didn't know anyhthing about cars and that I should read my warranty before challenging them.... As expected I'm gonna make him sit on it, rotate and like it...

Not to sound too stupid...how hard to remove EGR valve?
 

Not to sound too stupid...how hard to remove EGR valve?

and where the F*** is it? on the back of the engine? under intake?

You can see the EGR bung on your exhaust manifold, with the tubing moving in front of and wrapping around the block/head on the intake side. I assume the actual EGR valve is near the intake manifold, or most likely near the throttle body if it recirculates the spent gases. Never taken the time to find it though, just guessing here.

FOUND where EGR is located
 

Found where EGR is located.

http://members.rogers.com/cetheringt...missions-3.jpg

2002 Canada Warranty for us sucks
 

2002 Canada Warranty for us sucks

I have no problems with EGR........knock on wood. But heard there are problems with EGR valve so I checked my warranty and where it is located.........if I have similar problems I now know where it is so I can clean it.

http://members.rogers.com/cetheringt...missions-1.jpg

http://members.rogers.com/cetheringt...missions-2.jpg