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That's what the dealer calls it. The Germans call it a mixing housing.Back in early June I started to get a check engine light. The scan gauge(gotta love it) was showing PO401-exhaust gas recirculation flow insufficient and PO402-excessive. I spoke to one of the techs and he said that I needed a new EGR valve.This isn't the first one that they replaced.My Gina has over 86,000kms and is out of warranty. Prior to running out of warranty I had complained about some black tarry leakage from what I thought was the turbo. Well that was probably caused from the blocked egr valve so my dealer was kind enough to help me with the costs. I just got my camera back so I thought you might be interesred in some pictures.The EGR valve was replaced on the 9th of July and my baby is back to normal

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Thanks Glenn for the nice close-ups. It's great to see what this EGR valve gizmo actually looks like :cheeky:What causes the EGR to get all clogged with this gunk? Is it a byproduct of our Canadian diesel? If so it would be interesting to see an EGR valve from a smart with the same mileage but using bio-diesel exclusively.-pf:croak:

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Had the camera handy, excuse the poor quality.It's the shiny new part! Left hand side of the engine.

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Great pictures, Glenn! The add-on emissions recirculation systems in the CDi engine are definitely a weak spot. Keep the old valve because it can be cleaned up like new. An ugly job but doable. Try some brake cleaner fluid to soak off the built up crud.Here's a few tips to help keep the EGR system clear:- keep engine oil at 3/4 to the max line - never full!- replace air filter at regular intervals- don't always run at low rpm / keep EGT up- once in awhile, take a half-hour, high-temperature sports drive (an "Italian tune-up")- use a combustion enhancer like Milligan's or Cetane Booster- once a month add a system cleaner like Prestone Diesel Cleaner or Stanadyne- in winter use a block/pan heater or heated garageThanks again for the detail pictures!Bil :sun:

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i will be going for a second replacement.

2nd? ... How many Km on your smartie?B:sun:

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Ask for the unit, so that you have a spare.I plan on taking mine apart and cleaning it up.

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Sorry off topic, but I must ask. Bil: did you meet up with Cait while she was out west. You seem to have caught something from her?

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Sorry off topic, but I must ask. Bil: did you meet up with Cait while she was out west. You seem to have caught something from her?

Does it show??? I've been using the creme...B:sun:

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So Glenn, is this thing water-cooled or not? another member reported that it was, and that the dealer tied off the coolant lines to it.The EU-3 cars in Germany don't have a water-cooled EGR.

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Sorry off topic, but I must ask. Bil: did you meet up with Cait while she was out west. You seem to have caught something from her?

Does it show??? I've been using the creme...B:sun:
I gotta tell ya Bil, it's one thing when Cait does it to me, its an entirelydifferent thing when its you. :lol:

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Where do you get this Milligan's from and how much?

pm bil gladstone or eddie eddie eddieeither one of them can hook you up with that diesel conditioner.

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Where do you get this Milligan's from and how much?

I can hook you up! PM me or write to sales@bcnexus.comBil :sun:www.BestDieselSaver.com

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Mike T was asking if the egr was water cooled. The pictures at the beginning of this thread are of the egr valve mechanism. The mixing housing is bolted to the mecanism after the valve. I'm getting to know this area of the engine quite well, because I'm the guy that had the trouble with Hyatt Auto in Calgary. They installed a new egr valve and took the coolant hoses the are supposed to cool the mxing housing and detatched them bypassing the mixing housing altogether. The theory being that if the housing heats up enough it will burn off any coked-up crud that tries to accumulate. If you follow the coolant hoses in the picture "egrValve17july2007 026.jpg" you'll see at the bottom of the picture, underneath the shiny new egr valve, is the mixing housing (a very small portion of it anyway).

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and after looking at the picture of the part box that is actually labelled "mixing housing". I'm beginning to think that I'm partially wrong about this. Perhaps this part of the whole exhaust recirculation curcuit is called the "mixing housing" , which includes the bypassed part that I mentioned earlier. There seems to be a different term for these parts in Canada, because Hyatt called the part they bypassed a "mixing housing".

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I had a bit of time today so I looked at the EGR valve. The electric actuator is held on by 3 T25 screws. Came off easy enough. When it is activated it pushes the small stem in the picture. The first time I pushed the stem on the housing component it stayed in. After spraying it with some Milligan's penetrating oil(bio), it loosened up and sprung back. That was the problem right there and why I had check engine lights and intermittent loss of the turbo. You are unable to take apart, or get at all the areas, so soaking would seem to be the way to clean it.I beleive the dealers charge 3 hours labour to change one of these, so it is no small undertaking. Plus it would be damm messy to clean the old EGR.I have some pictures but will have to reduce the size to post.

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I have some pictures but will have to reduce the size to post.

Please do I would like to see the rest of this so I can figure out how to clean up the whole thing........... I have 650 limp mode free kilometers since cleaning out the mixing chamber on Sunday, and I have been driving the car harder than normal......

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I have some pictures but will have to reduce the size to post.

Please do I would like to see the rest of this so I can figure out how to clean up the whole thing........... I have 650 limp mode free kilometers since cleaning out the mixing chamber on Sunday, and I have been driving the car harder than normal......
How does one know when yer in this limp mode???does the dash indicate this???

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The car tops out at 80 km/h downhill, it is like a limp spaghetti noodle, you can't miss it......

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