Hey guys, as promised, few pictures.
I'm not totally convinced it was badly blocked, but I let you and the car judge. Need to drive more for this fault to reappear.
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After. You can see dimples (by design) inside the tubes, that probably contribute to blockage.
3 bottom tubes are straight through, perhaps for oil passing through easier?
I rinses it in the oven degreaser concentrate in the water (nasty stuff, wear gloves if you use it) for about 10 minutes. It attacks lots of stuff, including metals, so don't leave it overnight
Urea crystals and everything have dissolved.
Attachment 38749
I opened up the egr valve to see how plastic gears look, they looked ok, but greased them with non-petroleum grease.
Attachment 38750
Cleaned everything and assembled back.
It ruined my hands, they look like I got attacked by 10 hungry cats.
This freak of engineering looks like a nuclear reactor.
Attachment 38752
If anyone is going to attempt this work, 15-20 hours, as mentioned, is probably about what it takes if to do it properly, e.g. respecting torque specs, using copper grease, etc.
You'll need to drain coolant or, like I did, drained liter or 2 from the cooler itself.
You may also need:
- Inspection mirror
- Magnetic pickup - you'll drop endless stuff
- Endoscope helps too, some places/bolts are not visible from any angle - who designed this?
Tools that I really needed and did not have:
- dedicated hose clip pliers - absolutely essential
- various lengths torx bits
Parts I had to remove/detach:
- Air filter assembly / front rad cover
- Top brace
- Bottom cross member
- Disconnect downpipe from the gearbox mount
- DPF assembly detached from the exhaust and the turbo, did not need to remove
This allows to wiggle things out in some magic manner, rubic's cube springs to mind.
Attachment 38751
