Hello, I'm Lauren, and I know nothing about cars, but I have a neon. I joined the forum hoping to get advice from people who know a lil more than I do (hopefully a lot). Okay so the latest thing is, my car had the service engine light on and was burning a LOT more gas than it's supposed to. I took it to Advance Auto Parts and they ran a diagnostic on it, which said EGR System Failure. So my uncle looked at it today and he unplugged some things and plugged them back in and sprayed a lot of wd-40 or whatever on it to lube it up. Then he reset the computer and unplugged the battery and plugged it back in. The service engine light is no longer on, but I haven't really driven it yet. My question is, could this fiddling around with it and lubrication be enough to fix whatever the problem might have been? I would appreciate any advice! Thanks all :-)

 

nope... egr codes come on after a certain amount of miles on the car. i have that code on my car right now i don't have time to fix it yet but i will. a couple things to check and all the vaccum lines the run around the engine. if one of those are broke or disconnected it will throw a code. also you evap canister could be bad and need to be changed. the last thing could be the evap Solenoid. you need a tester to test that so maybe go to a mechanic. what your uncle did prolly didn't fix any thing but he did clear the code which will come back in a few miles or so.

 

other things can throw an egr code on your neon but as i have done in the past never overlook the obvious an egr valve redirects exhaust gas and subject to heat and corrosion so your uncle may have been able to free this up if it was the prob (never underestimate the power of water dryer formula 40) if u were flush with the bucks id suggest replacing the valve with a new one but if it aint broke dont fix it (or my motto fix it til its broke)Trust your uncle if this situation reoccurs your computer will throw another code and ur little light will shine.

 

It is most likely the EGR or evap solinoid. I just replace both on my car. They are cheap and easy to do. I think it was like $50 for both.

 

well thats good to know it don't cost alot. i have to get to the parts store on my day off and buy the parts to solve my problem.

 

Where the heck did that misinformation come from? I had nearly 180k miles on the car before getting a code for the EGR... That whole conspiracy theory of the mileage-based check engine light is a leftover from people scared of the original OBD implementation...

If reading the codes says it's from the EGR, then it's from the EGR. Not random vacuum leaks (which has its own code), and not the evap/purge system (which has its own set of codes). If it was read at Autozone, they should have given you the 4-digit code which will narrow it down. OBD-2 has specific codes for specific problems. That was the government's way of making emissions-related problems easier to track down and fix. That's the whole purpose behind On-Board Diagnostics.

2 things will cause the EGR to fail - the solenoid, and the valve itself (or the piping) - each has their own 4-digit code. The EGR's job is to dump nasty gunk from the exhaust system back into the intake manifold. So it makes perfect sense that the valve could be sticking or the tubing could be clogged. WD-40 could clear that out (I'd go with carb cleaner myself), and may solve the problem. If the valve is just worn out and sticking (damaged) the only option is to replace it (or buy a Mopar computer and forget about it). If the code was for the solenoid, then cleaning the valve won't fix the problem. Resetting the computer will make the code go away. If either problem is still there, it should show up the first time you drive on the freeway at freeway speeds for more than a few minutes.

Best of luck!

 

i got my information from AllData and a few mechanics i know. all have experience well beyond what i know so i trust what they say. yes obd2 gives codes to tell you the problem but that doesn't always mean if u fix that problem thats the end of it. with cars when one thing breaks there could always be some thing else.

 

There may be cars that have the CEL at certain mileage intervals (no manufacturer is ever going to admit to it though). The Neon most definitely is not one of them. Just turned over 237,000 miles on mine this week. I've had the timing belt skip a tooth and not throw a code (until it skipped a second tooth...), other than that, the OBD-2 pointed to the actual problem every single time, and I've had dozens over the last 6 years. Only "false" code was the 12/22, but that could have been because the alternator was starting to go and causing voltage spikes. Never had problems that weren't caught by the PCM, ever.