Well I just replaced the EGR valve on my '06 GC SXT, and while it is not technically difficult, it is challenging. The main problem is the lower bolt of the valve is right next to the alternator, it can be reached with a 1/4" 10mm socket. While the bolt can be loosened the problem arises when the final threads are reached, the bolt runs into the alternator. Thanks to my wife's skinny fingers I was able to get it out and back in but like I said it is a challenge. I believe that someone on here said to loosen the alternator, which sounded like a good idea but on my '06 the lower bracket of the alternator is an "L" shape so there is no "take the top bolt out and loosen the lower and rotate. So like I said it's not technically difficult but it is challenging, took me about two hours which the difficulties(and my big "meat hooks"...lol)

Second, I would like to thank, master tech, TNtech, Tizzy1 and all the others that contribute here, for all the info provided for backyard mechanics like myself. I believe it was here that I found info of the blower motor resistor pack also.

 

Forgot to ask, since the EGR reduces the amount if NOx released by the car, would using Shell gasoline with Nitrogen foul an EGR valve sooner, or cause it to fail????? Just wondering if anyone had any insight.

 

I hate to be the dark cloud to your party, but did you happen to see any issues with the channels that run to and from the egr. in my other vehicles, they were plugged with carbon causing the egr to be non functional. I don't know how your egr is set up, (my 2.4 doesn't have an egr system) but on the two non caravan vehicles I did service, I ran a wire brush, oven cleaner, and vacuumed air through and through all channels leading to the egr.....what a difference in performance and milage it made.

 

^---Your not being a dark cloud, if this place is like the other forums I'm in it's a place for discussion and debate.

My EGR set-up had a tube from the intake to the EGR and the EGR is mounted to the head just below the valve cover. I did check the tube and it appears to be free flowing with compressed air. As far as the mount point on the head it appeared to be a port and I could see about an inch into it, it looked fine.

I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean by channels, though.

 

I meant the ports, the tubes leading to and from the actual mechanism of the egr. from what you're describing, it would be the hole (port) in the head and the tube leading to the intake. what's most likely to be blocked (IF it is blocked anyway) is the port in the head. that hole (port) in the head leads to an exhaust port of a cylinder. exhaust backpressure is held back by the needlevalve in the egr until the egr is opened by the ecu, which then allows a small amount of exhaust to flow into the intake. exhaust has little to no oxygen, which is why it is used for the egr to reduce the temperature of combustion (thus reducing nitrous oxide) by mixing with normal oxygenated intake air which then reduces the amount of available oxygen to burn. forgive me if you knew that. On my mitsubishi mirage, I took off the egr valve and noticed a perfect 4mm hole and a perfect 10mm hole. I just meant to clean the base of the egr valve with a shoprag and all this carbon soot started breaking into pieces. looked just like black plastic tubing being broken apart. lo and behold, turned out that both holes were about 10 mm wide. the years of buildup in the port which goes through the head were choking the egr, much the same as cholesterol on arteries! I took off my exhaust manifold and found that the egr port that was clogged lead to the exhaust port of cylinder #3, which seemed to be clean. I found a flexible wirebrush and reamed all this crud through the entire tube and boy did a lot come out. I cleaned the egr needle valve and the port that lead to the intake manifold which seemed clean enough. It's amazing what difference it made in power and efficiency. I went from 28mpg to 32mpg , no lie, I measure every tank. the ecu is supposed to throw a code if the egr is not working right, but until it is more than 50% or so, the ecu wont let you know. you can go months with a groggy engine like me and not know why. I never did get a code in my car. the ecu is depending on the air in a certain amount from the exhaust to adjust its values for air/fuel etc, and if you're not getting the right amount of that exhaust, performance will suffer. you won't get the proper amount if your ports are clogged deep inside. I wouldn't put compressed air through the hose running to the intake since any pieces of soot that break off from inside the tube will be sucked through the engine intake, I used some thin tubing and vacuumed it out as best I could and followed up with carb cleaner. learned on another forum that oven cleaner works well so I sprayed that in the exhaust port only. you can ream that port out without pulling off an exhaust manifold only if you're sure you're going all the way to the exhaust side. whatever chunks you force into the exhaust manifold will get cremated for sure when it gets stuck in your catalytic converter. don't use oven cleaner in your exhaust port unless you take off the manifold and clean it all out since it might mess up your o2 sensors and/or cat. In my case I took off the manifold and used a flexible wirebrush and ran it through like floss from one side to the other then did the above. wouldn't worry about yours unless you're having issues. you probably only saw about an inch into it because it is dark in there. I see now that i've been rambling on, I tend to do that when I'm avoiding doing the things I should be doing around here!