1.9 dCi oil in EGR valve?!

[daveq89]

Alright folks, been noticing excessive oil consumption on my 04 1.9 dCi over the past few months, it's currently running through roughly 1litre of oil every 500-600 miles which is a little worrying. Turbo was replaced last May, although thankfully before the old one gave up the ghost! Whacked off the EGR solenoid today as noticed some oil dripping from there and found a rather unpleasant sight:

Before taking solenoid off
After solenoid off

It doesn't show up that well from the photos, but the gunk was 100% engine oil, so my concern is what engine oil is doing anywhere near the EGR valve, as surely its intake comes straight from the exhaust manifold?? Also, both the EGR solenoid and valve move freely when pressed, however been getting error code P0487 Exhaust Gas Recirculation throttle position control circuit...so not sure if that's trying to tell me it's jamming open/shut?

Anyway, any comments appreciated!

Dave

[tomalamix]

thats a lot of oil...your turbo is refurb or new? i would check for excessive play on the turbine and check if there is too much oil on the intercooler pipes also.

[davelowe]

First off, get the valve out of the manifold and have a good look inside the port and clean it all thoroughly. The bit in your hand is only the solenoid ie half the job. When it's all put back, remove the big tube immediately above the EGR and inspect that (does it have oil in?). You can start the engine with this pipe pulled to one side and observe the EGR letting little puffs of smoke out. Don't rev above 2000rpm. Watch to see whether the oil comes from the intercooler pipe (the one you disconnected) or from the exhaust port/crank case breather.

[Husky_Dog]

Just out of curiosity...

What mileage and conditions has this vehicle been operated under?

What service schedule has the vehicle been maintained to?

[daveq89]

Yea I know, couldnt get the valve to come out or budge at all, seems to be well hammered in. Almost 100K on the clock, been kept in really good condition, oil changed nearly every 6 months and drives like a dream, no hesitancy, flat spots or anything which is why I wasn't too worried...until I saw this! Will try taking the intercooler pipe off today if I've time and see if I can find out a bit more, cheers for the comments so far!

[davelowe]

You can free it (this is not a joke) with a big can of penetrating spray (NOT WD40), a cold chisel and a hammer.

Spray, hit to rotate one way, spray, hit to rotate the other way, repeat for 15 minutes.

[matthewluhman]

Old post but to remove these we use the tool from a angle grinder. locate one leg in the bolt hole and the other on the outsise of the flange and rotate it and it slowly frees of. u have to be careful when cleaning hehind these as u can push the gudge into the inlet path. To do it properly you need to remove the inlet manifold which is a huge job. this is a job really worth doing as the state of these we see when replacing turbos is shocking.

[freelanderuk]

very good tip regarding the tool from an angle grinder

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-Pin-Spanner ... 4ac1fbfbbc for the tool in question

[taffyhl]

My 1.9dci (also 2004) had a new turbo 6000 miles ago after it failed on the previous owner.

Last week using my cheap OBDii reader I got a 487 - EGR "circuit open message on the EGR Vavle" and the 'Toxic Fumes' light came on for a short time before going off (never to return).

Took out the EGR valve in one piece without too much trouble and it was a bit oily and sooty and there was some oil around the 'convaluted pipe' at the bottom of the valve. No where near as bad as yours but I'm guessing it shouldn't have been there and I assumed this was left over from the previous turbo failure.

I did clean up the valve but plan to replace it as I had the car tested by an indepedant specialist and they report the EGR isn't behaving properly. My only concern is I've read the ECU has to be programmed when the EGR is changed so it knows what position it is in. If the old one is closed and the new one goes in closed I would have thought that would be ok. Adds another £45 to the job if it needs programming...

[taffyhl]

Just had a look at the offical EGR cleaning instructions (Technical Note 3916A) and they state that:

After cleaning the EGR solenoid valve, follow the programming procedure carried out after EGR solenoid valve replacement.

These are given in Technical Note 3876A as:

After replacing the EGR valve, reset the parameters entitled "first offset of the EGR valve in EEPROM" and "last offset
of the EGR valve in EEPROM".

Depending on the engine, the titles of the parameters may vary. Always read the MR for the relevant vehicle's engine
as soon as possible.

I don't suppose many people have done this after cleaning their EGR valve? I certianly didn't!

[taffyhl]

Oil consumption has been higher in my 1.9dci following the last oil change (1000 miles ago) so interested to see what you found was causing the oil in the EGR valve. Any news??

I could see oil coming out of my engine stop valve so took the pipe leading to it off and could see some oil in the pipe. Defintely not meant to be there but not sure if it was left over from the turbo failure last year or is new - so have cleaned it out and will check it again in a day or so. Also will be taking it to a Renault specialist as I don't want to wait too long and see the turbo fail or similar.

[taffyhl]

First off, get the valve out of the manifold and have a good look inside the port and clean it all thoroughly. The bit in your hand is only the solenoid ie half the job. When it's all put back, remove the big tube immediately above the EGR and inspect that (does it have oil in?). You can start the engine with this pipe pulled to one side and observe the EGR letting little puffs of smoke out. Don't rev above 2000rpm. Watch to see whether the oil comes from the intercooler pipe (the one you disconnected) or from the exhaust port/crank case breather.

Apols, I can't work out how to add pictures!

Disconnected the Intercooler pipe and moved to one side. There was a little oil in the intercooler pipe I just disconnected and looking into the pipe it connects to this was quite sooty and oily. Looked like my EGR valve did before it was cleaned. Did my best to remove the gunge in there using a blunt knife and toothbrush. To give it a proper clean it would need to be taken off but this looks the manifold so too big a job for me.

When I ran the engine for a short time the sooty mess looked a bit wetter after so looks like the oil is coming from there rather than the intercooler pipe.

I'm going to take the car to a french car specilalist in Cardiff ("le car"!) this week if I can as I don't like driving it on my 90 mile a day commute when it's using/losing oil somewhere. Luckily the missus doesn't use here car so I'll be in a Micra for the rest of the week at least!