Club 80-90 Forums

Hi guys,

Just interested if anyone on here has any experience of this...
My 2003 zafira has an EGR circulation fault (P0400). It has done 150000 miles and I suspect that the inlet manifold is just at the point where it is getting restricted flow from all the soot and gunk from the exhaust gas recycling. Has anyone dismantled and cleaned one?
Any words of encouragement or advice?

Cheers!

Ok, seeing as it appears no one has dealt with this before....
I have discovered that this job did indeed need doing!

The inlet manifold and the butterfly valves and basically everything from the inter cooler right up to the ports on the block was caked in carbon gunk and crusty black crud. I have now disassembled the lot and am giving them a good clean before reassembling tomorrow. Let's hope I can remember what went where!

I'll let you know whether it improves the running!

Did this on an Alfa 156, on that people used to blank off the egr as it gave better performance. Just used brake cleaner to clean. Think I cleaned it first then later on blanked it.

I did this on a 2004 diesel vectra. Was a few years back but pretty sure it was a systematic dismantle and clean and soak with carb cleaner then reassemble. Made a difference to the performance.

Josh

All done and reassembled. Definitely better throttle response.

Hi

Coking up inlet manifold is also a common problem on alfa 159's too as they share the same diesel engine with a lot of cars (and vans).

Blanking plate is the answer after a clean out - official oem are available or a coke tin with x4 5mm holes will do the job and stop the ECU throwing up a fault code

E bay have them too - to buy - or get the pattern for making your own

Lots of detail and discussion on Alfa Owner 159 and Berera forum

matt brighton wrote:Hi

Coking up inlet manifold is also a common problem on alfa 159's too as they share the same diesel engine with a lot of cars (and vans).

Blanking plate is the answer after a clean out - official oem are available or a coke tin with x4 5mm holes will do the job and stop the ECU throwing up a fault code

E bay have them too - to buy - or get the pattern for making your own

Lots of detail and discussion on Alfa Owner 159 and Berera forum

Speaking to a couple of mechanic friends today, who said that on some models it is possible to rotate the egr 180degrees. Then it still thinks it's working but is in fact disabled.

This is the Vauxhall engine not the fiat engine. I had one for for years and although a bit noisy was really good on fuel, much better than my 1.9pd engine. I just spooned the crap out of the ports in the head, I think i even had a go burning some out. I wanted to wash out with petrol or something but was concerned i'd be filling the cylinders if that valve was open!. The inlet cover is relatively easy to spoon out and clean with petrol. But if you want to disable the EGR you may encounter limp mode. The ECU calculates the predicted airflow and compares it to the flow though the Airflow meter, if the 2 don't match then it throws a fault. I found this out after because mine would intermittently put the light on and go into limp mode...usually in the same place every morning!!! I took it to an Expert who changed the Air flow meter based on what his laptop told him... the next morning the same problem!... ..I had to resort to some actual real testing and mechanical knowledge and understanding of the system to find the real problem. Then again it was not his money he wasted it was mine! My vacuum pump was weak, so if on and off the brakes it would run out of vacuum, and the egr valve would not open / close as the ECU though it should. It would throw a code of impossible airflow and the light of DOOOM!