Jump to content

Car Guys....EGR Valve bad


C-bus

Recommended Posts

My engine light came on on my 2013 Honda Pilot. Of course at 63k, while in Florida on a mini-vacation with warranty expiring at 60K. Turns out it is my EGR valve that needed to be replaced at my cost. Car guys....why did this happen on a 1.5 year old vehicle? Should I be pissed and pursue Honda? Or suck it up to normal wear and tear? $300 wasn't horrible, but in a Honda with 63k miles? Thoughts? Also, could I have contributed to its demise somehow?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All manufactures have a dud pass through every so often. Back in 2006 I was with a friend who just purchased a brand new R1, we were riding together direct from the dealer after delivery and I assure you the bike was never revved over 4,500 when at 46 miles a rod came through the engine block. 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

EGR valves clog up with deposits and stick open or closed.

Not a big surprise since it's in the exhaust gas flow.

No manufacturer likes to support them because of the failure rate.

 

Makes me wonder if soaking one of them in a bucket of oven cleaner would work...

I do crazy things like tap them with a hammer to see if they start working again.

Or sometimes want to make a block off plate and remove it.

I hate EGR valves. Not a good design decision and certainly not reliable.

Seems like I mostly ignore EGR problems...

 

Opinions of a backyard mechanic and in this case probably clueless.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Low quality fuel is the most likely culprite.

 

With lack of oil changes or cheap oil being second.

 

Another possibility would be incorrectly gapped spark plugs leading to more carbon in the exhuast, but 99.9% sure that the spark plugs in a car like that would be irridium and not to be gapped.

 

An even rarer possibility would be a bad compression ring or overall poor seal in the cylinder, but you would most likely have noticed oil burning or running poorly.

 

Of course it is possible that it was just a bad part.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Would overfilling the tank contribute? I topped it off more than I ever had prior to the failure. I was filling it thinking "man, I've never put another 2 gallons in after first click".

 Doubtful. I've been topping off my cars and trucks for years and never had an issue.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Honda warranty on that part is 3/36. At the end of the day, I asked for a special warranty accommodation and they reduced the bill from nearly $400 to just under $300. Could have been worse. Thank you for the replies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Funny thing, looking at GM's warranty, there are 3 different levels of emission warranty, and one of them is 2/24, less than GM's bumper to bumper. :nono:

Warranty. What's that. This is why I don't buy a new car. Ever. Or even one with existing warranty. Chances of something going bad in 3-5 years or up to 60,000 miles is very slim. Unless you're buying something German. Teehee

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm a Honda tech, we very rarely replace the egr valve itself. Most of the time its carbon deposits in the intake. Throwing egr's at that thing probably wont solve your issue.

That's what they did. 63,000 miles on it (to be fair, it's 18 months old).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kinda rare to see this issue with that low of mileage. But our fuel in the Midwest blows and you can't turn down the duty cycle of the egr itself... But usually we remove the egr and top section of the intake plenum and clean out carbon deposits.

What is the specific code its throwing?

This is not from overfilling or plugs. Those spark plugs are good for 120k miles. The charcoal canister is for vapor recovery only and has nothing to do with fuel level, you cannot "flood" this.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://www.epa.gov/obd/pubs/420f09048.pdf

This is what Uncle I'm doing you a favour warranty standards are. Doubt that the manufacturerers would go beyond these numbers. California may be differant because of the tree huggers and hipsters.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Judd, when I was a Nissan wrench, our emissions warranty was 5/60. Anything and everything emission related was covered by this warranty.

Also, our ECU coverage was 5/60. This was ten years ago, though. I'm sure they've found ways to fuck people since then.

 

GM covers ECM for 8/80 and cat converter for 8/80.  I do know that coverages change from year to year so we have to check each one.  They've scaled back powertrain from 10/100, and I'm sure the cuts will continue, to make up for the recall $$$ going out the window.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is not from overfilling or plugs. Those spark plugs are good for 120k miles. The charcoal canister is for vapor recovery only and has nothing to do with fuel level, you cannot "flood" this.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes you can flood a canister. I've seen it on multiple occasions especially with old people when gas prices would fall.

And I have also seen many a yes A spark plug replaced under bumper to bumper warranty for misfires because the iridium plugs dont get gapped and occasionally you get a bad or incorrect gapped one from the factory, and its off just enough to not throw a misfire every time. Remember you have to have 6 consecutive misfires to throw the light.

2 years vw/ford tech

6 years independent

2 years bmw

Edited by zx3vfr
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Honda filler neck won't allow this in an overfill situation. Besides there would be a evap code if this happened.

I wasn't saying anything about a spark plug being warrantied. Just saying it's not going to be a spark related issue. There was no complaint of a misfire. I was just trying to give some insight on the egr issue. None of this is going to be egr related.

I've been with Honda for 5 yrs and don't see any of this leading to an egr problem.

Just trying to lend some advise from personal experience, not argue on diagnosis. I apologize if my previous comment came off as trying to prove you wrong. That was not my intention.

Although I do think the issue can be solved by cleaning the ports.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...