P040300 Exhaust Gas Recirculation

[Ciprian78]

EGR valve vw passat
Hi guys
I have a vw passat 2l 'bluemotion .61 reg (taxi) 74.000miles
A week ago the engine light come on and after few times turn off and on the engine the light was gone.
After that daily come on and just disapper again.
I did a diagnostic test and come on P040300
Exhaust Gas Recirculation Circuit Malfunction.
My mecanic sed remove and clean it but the light can be back again , can be the sensor and then need to buy a new one 340£.
A guy expert on remaps recomand me to remap the car and to block the EGR sistem. Will be less £££ and time.
I dont know if is a good choise to remap a bluemotion , more CO2 and can afect the turbo.
Please let me know what is best to do, if anyone was the same prob.
Thanks a lot for your time.

[Gazwould]

Egr blank and remap .

[Crasher]

Fit a new EGR valve, this is a common issue on taxi's with the CR engine, VAG part number 03L 131 512 DQ and these costs £335.83. Remove the EGR valve is illegal and in the current climate, irresponsible. The good ones Euro Car Parts sell are WAHLER EGR Valve (http://www.eurocarparts.com/search/424447040) £160 MORE than genuine. I tried their cheap one and it lasted a month, the Intermotor one is reconditioned. With how long they take to do you need fit and forget.


Egr blank and remap .

Seriously Gaz, how can you still say that in light of the terrible press diesels are getting BECAUSE of people taking off the EGR valve?

[Ayrshore]

I think you're getting the DPF and EGR valves mixed up.

Removing an EGR valve isn't illegal.

[zollaf]

I think you're getting the DPF and EGR valves mixed up.

Removing an EGR valve isn't illegal.
can you back this statement up with some form of evidence please ???

[zollaf]

no, ok, so here is some to prove you are wrong and it is in fact illegal. please feel free to read up on the vehicle construction and use website. this is just a snippet from another website but you can follow the link.

https://www.hypermiler.co.uk/technical-guides-and-faqs/is-it-illegal-to-remove-or-disable-your-egr-valve

[Crasher]

I think you're getting the DPF and EGR valves mixed up.

Removing an EGR valve isn't illegal.

I don't get such details mixed up after 35 years as a grease monkey, removing ANY device that invalidates the emissions regulations is illegal under European and UK law, in America it is extremely illegal. The whole point of an EGR valve is to reduce NOX emissions and to increase these is illegal. I suggest anyone with an interest in this subject should read Faster, Higher, Farther by Jack Ewing, it is fascinating.

[Gazwould]

The whole thing is a debacle as vehicles with an operational egr do not meet the EU NOx emissions they were designed to meet ( not tested in UK ) .


https://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/375/cpsprodpb/1280C/production/_84288757_diesel_cars_emission_gra-2.jpg

[martin1810]

I doubt that interfering with emissions on a car in UK is illegal even though politicians try to say it is. There are few legal requirements that road vehicles need to meet and if a vehicle meets the current requirements it can't be illegal, can it? The laws on emissions relate to original sale of the vehicle. So a new vehicle in UK must meet the standards set at the time of manufacture but in future it will only be tested to the stated MOT requirements which are far less stringent. In theory a vehicle could be stopped and tested on the road for emissions but the test is likely to be against MOT standards not original standards so a car that passes an MOT emissions check should be ok.
People claim that changes are illegal but when you look closely there don't seem to be any actual laws that you might break. I think this remains a grey area because the government do not have accurate figures for every car on the road so they can't test every car against it's original registered values. USA get round this by having a readiness check. We don't have that in UK.
Having said all of this, I am a fan of clean breathable air, so I would not encourage egr delete and dpf delete even though it is something I can easily do.

Finally. When will garages stop suggesting egr cleaning for egr faults? Does it ever work?

[Crasher]

It is illegal under the construction and use act and also under European law so therefore by default (as we are still in the EU) it is illegal in the UK. My argument is not whether it is illegal or not, the point for me is that it is irresponsible and immoral to knowingly emit unnecessarily large amounts of emissions directly harmful to health, i.e. NOX and particulate matter. To see a diesel car go past a school full of kids whilst belching out visually impairing amounts of black smoke should upset anyone who classes themselves as being a compassionate and responsible human being

Removing ANY statutory emissions device is an MOT failure so obtaining an MOT pass with these systems missing is fraud.

If an EGR valve or cooler is blocked solid it makes more sense to replace it from a professional point of view but if you are working on your own car and there is nothing wrong with the valve then cleaning it makes sense if you don't mind the filth.

I had an idiot in a BMW X% in front of me the other day and he was spewing two huge trails of filth and he had a child in the car. I started to video the muck and he saw what I was doing, freaked out and turned off up a side street. If I could be bothered to edit out his number plate (I am not sure of the legality of posting it) I would show everyone.

[martin1810]

Given that p0403 is usually a mechanical fault or a wiring fault. Cleaning the egr is unlikely to work. Just fit a new egr.

[Gazwould]

I had an idiot in a BMW X% in front of me the other day and he was spewing two huge trails of filth and he had a child in the car. I started to video the muck and he saw what I was doing, freaked out and turned off up a side street. If I could be bothered to edit out his number plate (I am not sure of the legality of posting it) I would show everyone.

No excuse for it , bit of old fashioned policing needs to clamp down on these particulate tractors .

1980's and earlier Defenders are evil .

Even a 3.0 VAG TDI minus a dpf and egr will emit a light haze at full chat , it's all down to the remapping .

Poor or fuel rich maps or single channel fuel pressure fooling tuning boxes belong in the bin .

[Crasher]

It is one thing having a go at cleaning an EGR valve that is at the front of the engine but the CR type around the back, under the turbo behind the turbo are hours of work to remove and re-install and from what I have heard, cleaning them doesn't help. A MASSIVE problem at the moment is that genuine VAG EGR valves for the 1.6 and 2.0 CRTDI engines are impossible to obtain and the aftermarket copies are useless, they pack up instantly in some cases. This is one of the problems of mass cross model/make platform sharing and illustrates the "virus" effect of component sharing discussed in Jack Ewing's book Faster Higher Farther, basically fitting the same part to millions of cars across various models and even makes has huge cost advantages BUT if one of those parts is fundamentally flawed it "infects" all your products.