Nissan Altima EGR Valve

iver729

I have a 2000 Nissan Altima. I had the EGR Valve replaced in April of 2006. This month (March 2007) my check engine light came on. After taking the car to Autozone to take advantage of their free diagnostic, I found out it was the EGR Valve code again! My question is, does the valve need to be replaced again or just cleaned? It seems odd to me that the valve would fail again less than a year later.

clangille

Not sure if you've fixed it by now, but if not, be careful with this one or you can be thrown for a major loop. I own a 98' Mazda Millenia, and obviously the technology and engineering are completely different than that of an Altima, but I had the same problem last year. The check engine light came on and Auto Zone pulled the code for me. The first mechanic I took it to told me I may just need to clean the actual EGR valve, so I had him do it($75). He deleted the code and it came on the next day. So I went back to him to make sure it wasn't the same code coming back on and he said I needed a new engine knock censor, so I replaced that ($450). He deleted the code and it came back 2 days later. Skeptical of the mechanic now, I took it to someone else who said it needed a new O2 censor($340). Deleted the code, came back after 4 days. So, the next mechanic said I needed to replace all four purge selinoid sensors($700). You see where this is going right? At this point I didn't trust any mechanic. I read forum after forum. Heard it could be anything from a dry rotted hose to a faulty computer. I ordered the manual from Auto Zone's website for $25. After reading the manual front to back I found that if the ports underneath the throttle body are clogged with carbon, it will throw the EGR code. I removed the throttle body, and prayed carbon cleaner in the ports and cleaned them thoroughly. Had the code deleted, and it's been good ever since. Most mechanics will just try the quickest and priciest option first, without really uncovering the real problem. I spent alot of money on this, and turns out I could have done it myself with a $25 manual and $8 bottle of carbon cleaner. BE WARE OF MECHANICS!!!

javidraaj

Thatz exactly I have in my car too. Could you explain little more about how to locate this ports underneath the throttle body and how to clean them.
If you have pictures that would be great.

I appreciate your help

clangille

I don't know where they are on the Altima, but I'm sure if you get a manual it will tell you. You'll most likely need to get some type of third party manual specifically for your make & model year. Maybe Auto Zone or Pep Boys has one or you could Google it. On the Millenia, it was easy enough to access that even a novice like myself was able to do it. It couldn't imagine it would be much harder on the Altima. I used a brillo pad and a bottle of carbon cleaner, but depending on how they are situated on the Altima, you may need a different tool, but make sure it's something abrasive enough to scrape the carbon off, because it will probably be baked on due to the engine heat. Alternatively, you could just take it to a mechanic and tell him you don't want any sensors replaced until they clean the carbon out of the ports and delete the code. Beware though, because some mechanics won't want to do it since it's such a small job and they won't make any money on it. They only way they'll make a profit is if they do something labor intensive like replacing a bunch of sensors. The mechanics I took my car to were probably licking their chops when I told them what the problem was because they knew there were several different things they could do to "fix" the problem and then play dumb after it didn't work. Hopefully that helps.

javidraaj

Thanks for the answer. Thatz why I also afraid to take it to a mechanic. I couldn't find anything on the net about the service/repair manual. so I'll follow ur advice to go toa autozone or pepboys to get a manual. If you happened to know some place that I can download manuals let me know.

once again thanks for the help

javidraaj

one more thing would be much helpful if you can give me the name of the exact part that you cleaned.? is it called service port or egr port or something else?
in ur car where exactly it was attached to ? to the EGR valve or something else?
if you have some diagram or something to point pls provide me with some hints