A4 Avant 2003 130tdi ERG disconnect

[Monzo]

Greetings from Dublin, first post, hope I do this right. Can anyone confirm with reasonable certainty if plugging the vac pipe on egr valve will bugger
up this particular model A4? Am particularly thinking of ECU getting
"confused" as have read that this can happen. This is my first Audi, have
always driven Japanese vehicles/4x4s, plugging egr vac pipe made difference to smoke, better starting, no gung in manifold, no sticking egr etc.
Never had any turbo, excess engine temp probs. Have already plugged A4
vac pipe, went fine for bout hour then MIL/engine management light came
on. Warning lights have never come on in any of my previous vehicles with egr disabled.
Would be very grateful for replies from any forum members with AVF,AWX A4s who have disabled egr and how things have progressed afterwards.

[daviemac11]

Hi mate,
Firstly, welcome to the board!
I have a 2002 1.9tdi 130 Avant and have recently(3wks ago) disconnected the EGR Valve and plugged the vac hose with no ill effects at all.
In fact, my car seems to be pulling better and giving better mpg since I disconnected the valve! However, this may just be a coincidence.
I have had no emmissions/warning lights appear on my dash either.
Hope this is of some help.
Cheers,
Davie.

[one litre wonde]

i can only comment on what i have been told but from what i have heard disconnecting the EGR should kick up a ECU fault light....

[daviemac11]

Hi,
By reading other posts and other peoples experiences with disconnecting the EGR Valve, I'm led to believe that on newer Audi's, a fault may be thrown up by the ECU. However on this age of car, I don't believe it should cause any problems. I've had mine disconnected for a few weeks now with no negative effects what so ever.
Davie.

[Monzo]

Hi mate,
Firstly, welcome to the board!
I have a 2002 1.9tdi 130 Avant and have recently(3wks ago) disconnected the EGR Valve and plugged the vac hose with no ill effects at all.
In fact, my car seems to be pulling better and giving better mpg since I disconnected the valve! However, this may just be a coincidence.
I have had no emmissions/warning lights appear on my dash either.
Hope this is of some help.
Cheers,
Davie.

i can only comment on what i have been told but from what i have heard disconnecting the EGR should kick up a ECU fault light....

Thanks for replies, my main worry is that ecu will be affected by "message" sent back to it that engine (emissions) is malfunctioning. Might this trigger
"limp mode" or is it just a question of ignoring warning light as already know why its on? What if a "genuine" engine issue arises, light already on

[daviemac11]

Hi,
I can understand your concern if your emmisions/warning light came on and prevented you from knowing about any further faults that your car may have.
However, as I say, I've had mine disconnected for almost a month with no negative effects or warning lights at all.
May be worth reading through previous posts regarding disconnecting EGR valves on this year of car to see if anyone else has had any problems.
Cheers,
Davie.

[avanttdi]

plug the egr connector back in, remove whatever it was that you have blocked the vac pipe with, then disconnect the egr pipe, take out the old gasket, draw round it on some tin sheet and cut it out, drill a couple of holes in it. Bolt your new 'blanking plate' in where the gasket used to be. This way the egr is still functional but is blanked off from the intake.

[Monzo]

Hello Avanttdi and many thanks indeed for your reply. What I did was disconnect rubber vac pipe from egr and plug it with short length of 7mm dowel. Have always disconnected egr in my other vehicles for cleaner intake manifold, less smoke etc but audi first vehicle in which engine management light came on! Will try the blanking off method you suggest. I've read somewhere that engine light will switch itself off in audis once the "fault" has been repaired and the engine switched on/off fifty times in normal everyday driving. Do you know if this is correct or will I have to take it to the garage to have it knocked off?

[VAGMAN54]

if you get a code logged it will be egr low flow and shouldnt put you into limp.i would have thought that it would be best to repair the fault than try everything to bypass it,and with a pd engine i wouldnt recommend a blanking plate or you will have a big problem,it would be best to clear the code with a scanner than cycle your ign ,cars are intelligent and trying to trick it wont work..

[Monzo]

if you get a code logged it will be egr low flow and shouldnt put you into limp.i would have thought that it would be best to repair the fault than try everything to bypass it,and with a pd engine i wouldnt recommend a blanking plate or you will have a big problem,it would be best to clear the code with a scanner than cycle your ign ,cars are intelligent and trying to trick it wont work..

Thanks for good news that limp mode will not be triggered with disconnected egr. Basically as outlined in my posts above I dont want the egr in operation in the car as it gunks up the manifold over time, causes smoke, reduces power etc. When you say that blanking the egr in this particular engine would cause a big problem what do you mean exactly as this is precisely what I want to know as someone new to the Audi A4 tdi, engine code AVF, year 3003.