this EGR thing is mind baffling me, i got engine code thrown at me

[240meowth]

so i got this engine code thrown at me saying something's wrong w/ the EGR, but from wha i understand EGR is a complex gibrrish jumbo mumbo kinda whacko el sicko kinda thing. How does this thing work, and where should i start checking for problems?

[twitchy]

EGR

Exhaust Gas Regulator

It circulates exhaust gas through the...heads (?) when the engine is cold to heat things up more quickly

so if its not doing its job all you can do is replace it

I dont know where they are or how to change them on a 240 though

good luck

[OneVYeah]

If it's Engine Code 32 then yeah you're gonna have to replace your EGR valve, that's what we did on my brothers 240. It was the only thing that kept my bro from passing smog grrrr:D

[240meowth]

can you guys give me a clue where this thing is, what it looks like, and how much?

[twitchy]

cant say exactly, bot for what its worth it will connect between the exhaust manifold and the head at some point, look near where your upper rad hose goes into the engine

They arent expensive or hard to change assuming you can get to it

[kalieaire]

ignore it, there isn't a problem. :P

you can replace the egr valve, but if there are no problems w/ it, you're just wasting money.

get an fsm and go through the diagnostic procedures for troubleshooting. however, my light goes away after a while so i don't worry.

[Jeff240sx]

I just blocked off my EGR. There is a tube that gets connected in the stock header. That tube runs back to the rear of the intake manifold. It's underneath the very last intake runner, and it a bronze-colored hunk of metal that looks like a hat.
It recirculates exhaust gasses through the combustion chamber again, for emissions. It's a POS, and I hate all emissions things on my car. Luckily, the EGR was the last one.
-Jeff

[knightrider]

yea i got the same problem with the egr, if your car doesnt respond any diferently, or run like crap, dont worry about it, unless you have to smog ur car.

the problem doesnt always lie in the egr valve either, there are like 10 feet of vacume lines in the car, and any of those hoses could have a crack in them sumwhere, causing a vacume leak, making the egr not work correctly, also the valve that controls the egr's opening could be the culprit, if you wanna diagnose the egr by urself, i would pick up a fsm.

[Luke]

I had this happen to me too. I found a hole in one of the vacuum lines back there behind the intake manifold by the valve. I replaced this vacuum hose and it went away.

This also happened to be right after i passed MD state emissions test. heh

[240meowth]

i have to get my car smogged at a "test only" center, that's why i'm stressin about this EGR, and i don't have the money for FSM so anyone give me a clue how to check?

[NismoGear5]

well just got this problem solved 2 weeks ago with my latest S13.

To get it smogged, it won't pass if you take out the light bulb hahaha or have the light on.

I've been busy lately so I had a smog repair station REPAIR the car and I was told that they had to clean the lines leading to and around the EGR/BPT and replaced the BPT disc thingie, they also cleaned up the EGR for me and the light went away.

[mr0072003]

Hi guys, just recently, one of the wires from my distributer connecters came loos ( a known issue I have had for years) while driving, causing a loss of spark and the engine cuttingm off (loss of spark to engine). I immediatly knew what it was and rolled the car to the side. I pushed wire back into the connecter and car started right up like it was suppose to. The Engine light came on when the car died. I cheked the code and sure enough it was code 21 (Loss of primary ignition signal). I reset the code and all was good. Here is where my problems began. Shortly after going home after work that day, my check engine light came back on, when I checked it, to my surprise, it turned out to be code 32 (EGR fualt code). This was unusauall since I have dealt with this code a few years back and new it pretty good, so I ignored that day since I knew it was emmisions only and reset the code. Well going to work the next day I noticed a SEVER loss of top end power and heard a very loud noise coming from my distributer when car was at 5000 rpm or more, sounds like I had glasspacks. (No it was not pinging sounds, it was louder). I checked the distributer and got a nice shock whenI touched it. The Distrubuter CAP was cracked.......So i had a spare cap replaced it with some old wires I had from my other engine and I still had the same problem with the loss of power and the EGR code would still come on after awhile or if I drive the car at high RPM.

My question to the the techs is:
Do you think when I lost ignition signal while the car was still running it caused somthing else to go wrong with EGR system or is ECU confused?

Why all of sudden would I lose power and the only code that I would get is EGR, when it sounds like I have something wrong with the distrubuter?

What the heck is the loud noise comming from my distributor?

What would crack a distibutor cap?


Please help. anyone :bite:

[nightwalker]

Sounds like your distributor might be grounding out somewhere, or some part of the ignition might be grounding out. Easy way to check this it to get a test light, and run the metal tip along your spark plug wires, distributor cap, and around the wires to see if you get a spark or if the engine stumbles when you run it by a component. If it's a bad grounding, you WILL see sparks jump to the test light.

I'm not sure about the EGR though. Sounds like a ECM or wiring problem there. Do you know how to do a EGR functionality test? That's the only real way to know if your EGR is malfuntioning.

BTW, for you emissions hating guys (only pertaining to Cali people) you guys know how much it sucks to get a TEST ONLY smog right? Well, only 15% of Cali cars were randomly assigned TEST ONLY smogs in the previous years. Starting in 2005, 40% of cars will be randomly assigned TEST ONLY smogs. Also high profile cars will also get TEST ONLY smogs...for ex: -failed previous smogs, -excessive ownership changes, and -missmatching odometer readings. Good luck.

[mr0072003]

OMG that sounds like exactly what is happening, I will get my dad to check it with the test light and tell him about the grounding thing. As for the EGR, I found and fixed the problem. It was a vacumm leak, i found a hose that had a big ars hole in it. went to autozone and replaced the hose and NO MORE check engine light. At first I thought the two were related but, i think I just had a strock of bad luck and the EGR just happend to pop his face out during the same time. I will keep you posted on my progress.

:squintd: