Will EGR pipe inspection help me determine how bad EGR is?

If you don’t have any symptoms just go for it.

 

Does your car make a rough transition between electric motor and firing the engine?

Pixel XL ?

 

If you do a ton of highway you may have more leeway with EGR.

Taking a look at the EGR pipe can give us a rough idea.

I'm hoping others have better advice.

Pixel XL ?

 

With 104K miles on odometer, it's pretty much a given that the EGR will be partially clogged. Still, I wouldn't rush in, might as well wait till after. The pipe is readily accessible, and yeah, can act as the "canary in the coal mine". But with it almost for certain there will be partial clogging, maybe best not to look, till after.

 

Over the coarse of time the EGR can accumulate soot and carbon. As it was mentioned, it depends on the operating environment in which the car has be subjected. In any event, this is a condition that takes time to develope. If you feel that you have paid attention to the maintenance and haven’t been puttering around town with it exclusively, it should be fine.
FYI, one of the symptoms is a misfire and rough engine start up.

 

My sense is that EGR clogging is inexorable/inevitable, regardless of driving style.Basically a design fail.

Getting an oil catch can in, in concert with the EGR cleaning, might help mitigate future reoccurrence of the clogging.

 

I think I should pull the throttle body off on ours come spring oil change. I'll be doing a second drain of the OCC then (OCC installed last fall, around same time as EGR cleaning), and it'd be interesting to see the condition of the intake manifold directly below the throttle body. I suspect it'll still be a bit oily; there seems to be a small amount of oil spitting back from the intake ports, beside the PCV contributions.

 

I will be doing round #2 of egr cooler to intake manifold cleaning / replacement in a couple of weeks.

This circuit install has ~55 k miles on it now and want to do the water pump while my old man is out here (hard to argue with a willing extra set of hands).

Have 175 k miles on our 2010, and doing the water pump as a preventative maintenance item as @Joele3 got me thinking I’m tempting fate.

I’ll post up some pics once I’m done with round #2.

 

I’ll be pulling out OCC soon too, which also a below PCV valve mount.

Level from the OCC dipstick shows about 1/8 of an inch and have over 5 k miles on this setup.

 

My OCC caught about 50 cc of "cream", first time I checked. My notes:

Saturday, December 30, 2017
km: 73150~ (about 2380 kms since install)
*Drained Oil Catch Can, about 50 cc, coffee with cream colour, smelled of gas.

It seems like winter, rain and humidity, up the volume? I'm guessing I'll see about the same volume when I drain it again, in conjunction with mid-April oil change.

It'd be interesting to see your water pump condition.

I think I'd have to be REALLY bored to justify doing the water pump on ours, at 74K kms now, and driving less'n less. I'll do the coolant at 10 year mark, well ahead of the kms I'm sure.

You higher mileage guys take all the hard knocks, and I just toodle along behind, arrive at the same conditions (if ever) many years on.

 

It'll be interesting if you can tell a difference in the EGR cooler with your OCC setup.

Pixel XL ?

 

When I helped @m.wynn with his old Gen3 do a water pump replacement, the plastic impeller was what I found to be the weak point. @m.wynn was nice enough to let me do some destructive analysis .

What @Joele3 shared with me was at around 155 k miles, his failed and now he’s got a head gasket fail.

9 years and 175 k miles out of a pump to me is a good run.

I’ll do destructive analysis on my pump and see what the impeller looks like. The magnets were in good shape, but the thin fins for the impeller will be my curiosity .

 

Plastic sounds like a poor choice.

 

My plan is to run our Prius into the ground, so I can run this test .

I’ve got the hv battery covered with the Prolong equipment .

I just hope the engine holds out .

 

I think thin cross section plastic is a poor choice .

Plastic is an amazing material and has many useful applications. This is one of them as it is resistant to any corrosion and can perform well under stress.

But for a thin cross section to withstand many miles and years of use, everything has a service life.

Since the Prius was thought to be designed for 180k mile service life (at least by us around here), I’m inclined to pony up a water pump .