After a year of driving my first car, the 2001 6n2 polo, I got an engine light which said the egr valve is stuck in the open position. Because its stuck in the open position, I did nothing but I will need to do something before my next mot.  As someone whos not bothered to buy a new valve I want to clean it before the mot.

 

So I bought the wynns egr valve cleaner, It says to spray into a turned on engine (preferebly 2000rpm) without the air filter in short bursts. The whole idea is for the chemicals to burn with the petrol to release some chemical fumes that will clean the egr valve. Question is, can I take off the air hose (bottom left to the  engine cover and big) and spray it into the air hose (facing down amd away from engine cover)?

 

Remembering from when I changed my own air filter, I feel like I'll need to take off the top black engine cover (with air filter) and spray the cleaner directly unto the metal tube inbetween the air filters. And My gut instinct tells me that turning on the engine with the hoses off will be very messy and risky and not worth cleaning the egr valve the lazy way.

 

Is my gut instinct wrong? Or is the metal tube inbetween the air filters not meant for airflow? Id rather be wrong here than make mistakes over there (under the bonnet).

 

 

The metal pipe from the EGR valve going into the intake is so the exhaust gases can be re-ingested and burn off any petrol vapours not burnt after the spark ignites the mixture, so if the EGR valve is stuck open the chances are the metal pipe from the valve is also either partially or possibly completely blocked, so that Mr Wynns "Snake oil" treatment will probably have very little effect, you'll need to remove the valve and the pipes and use something like Mr Muscle oven cleaner to breakdown the soot and carbonated oily deposits, As the EGR isn't fully monitored on your car (it's referred to as a MK5 on this forum or 6N2 and people will know what you have) the easiest way would be to lift the valve off the manifold and fit a blanking plate between the valve and manifold and bolt it all back together