Cleaning the EGR and Inlet on a GT

[Johnnojack]

Time has come for the 2nd clean of the EGR as now on 86000ks Took off the flapmotor and EGR no problems not quite as bad as last time (was similar to pics posted by Greg Roles) however inlet manifold looks like house of horrers, big buildup of fluffy soot with sticky gunk layer below it. Ok so I'll take the manifold off and do it properly. 2 hours later almost defeated getting out impossible bolts, tried to remove exhaust cooler as it was blocking access to bottom bolts of manifold. One bolt on exhaust inlet pipe is beating me. Has anyone, ANYONE? managed to remove the inlet manifold on a 1.9 TDI with the motor in the car? GT? I wish, no this motor has the inlet manifold at the rear of the engine. My legs hurt, my back hurts, I'm thinking I'll have to just put it back together with mostof that crap still choking it up. BTW fuel use is definitely up, though there may be some other reason. Sink the boot at the lights and the car behind has to stop and wait for the black cloud to clear.

[Transporter]

Has anyone, ANYONE? managed to remove the inlet manifold on a 1.9 TDI with the motor in the car?

Yes, a few times. It's not that bad, you just need the right tools for the job.
However, if the manifold is not badly clogged up, I've the equipment to clean it without removing it.

[Johnnojack]

OK I got it off, and cleaned up, and back on. Had to modify a couple of Allen keys and after getting out the bolt facing sideways behind the engine lifting bracket I could move the cooler out of the way and it wasn't too bad. Not completed yet but should be a goer in the morning. I made a new gasket which has a 11mm hole in it to restrict the exhaust flow to the EGR. Will that be enough to stop it bringing up the engine emission light. I am however quite convinced that when VW build the engine out of the car no regard is made as to the need to remove things like the inlet manifold, turbo etc.

Test drive gave lot less smoke but not all gone, might be some residual in exhaust system. Better response and power I think. The 11mm EGR inlet restriction is enough to stop Emissions Workshop light coming on so both car and me happy. Now to the Airbag light aaRRH.

[Johnnojack]

Update on above work. Smoke which once caused vehicle behind to disappear in black cloud when planting foot at lights has all but gone, not visible in mirrors. Acceleration feels better but just a feeling. However the average fuel consumption before the clean was 6.0 now it is down to 4.9 l/100km That is not just the "1" value (short trips) but the "2" value, over 2300km and climbing. No engine emissions light has appeared with the 11mm hole, maybe it could be smaller.

[poyta]

Yeah the manifold can be a pain - recently tried to remove mine for a clean up but when I got to the last bolt it was so incredibly tight that when I applied more pressure the torx bit just rounded the head so now I can't remove the bolt- had to put it all back together and put it into the too hard basket.
Anyone got any ideas how I can remove the damn bolt now?

[gldgti]

Yeah the manifold can be a pain - recently tried to remove mine for a clean up but when I got to the last bolt it was so incredibly tight that when I applied more pressure the torx bit just rounded the head so now I can't remove the bolt- had to put it all back together and put it into the too hard basket.
Anyone got any ideas how I can remove the damn bolt now?

buy a cheaper (but not the cheapest) set of allen and torx bits you can, and hammer the 'next size up' into your ruined bolt head, try it that way.

If that doesnt work, use an 8mm or 8.5mm drill (assuming they are M8 bolts) and drill the head of the bolt off. Remove the manifold, then you should be able to just undo the bolt with your fingers (once the head is off, all the tension will be gone). If you arent practiced at drilling out things like this, you might want to get someone who is to do it for you, as it can be quite tricky to get it started without breaking a drill bit. Its all together a pretty bad practice, but then some might say an artform, to be extracting ruined bolts from things.

You can replace the bolt with any grade of allen or torx head bolt that fits. Just measure the length fromthe bottom of head head to the end of the threaded part and get something the same length or very close to it. Grade 4.6 and up will be fine.

[dubster99]

Hey guys I know this is an old thread but its a goodie! So my jetta 2.0t bdk has 165k and I bought all the gaskets to do clean but this week my anti shudder valve decided to die! Had the engine light come on and scanned to find the motor had failed. Replacement from vw $690, europarts in the UK $411 shipped. Not the best way to spend $400 but it needs to be done. Question is if I cleaned the egr valve sooner would this have happened?

[Greg Roles]

Cleaning helps keep them alive for sure. They do seem to die eventually!

[bgcarter1]

i used a socket on a short torx bit to undo mine and when that wouldn't work i used a spanner on a short torx bit, then i threw it away and got a egr + cooler delete