I've had a check engine light on for some time now and recently got the code read. It said excessive EGR. Well, I replaced the EGR valve and had the codes cleared and the light is back on again. Why does the light come back on?

 

Hey there.
I dont think its your EGR valve. Most time when i see a excessive EGR flow problem i find a bad DPFE Sensor or the egr vacume control solinoid is stuck. One question how does your car idle? If the egr valve is stuck open, most of the time you will have a bad idle or stalling situation. 95% of the ones i see are the DPFE SENSOR Gone to the bad. Make sure you dont have any vacume to the egr valve at idle.

 

Thanks for the reply. I was hesitant to replace it because the car runs and idles fine. I really didn't know how to test the old one to see if it was bad. How hard is it to replace the sensor you were talking about? Also, you were talking about a vacum control. In another one of my post I talked about my car having vibrations. Could this vacum problem cause my engine to vibrate and maybe thats what I'm feeling in the car?

Kyle

 

Hey Kyle.

Its not hard to do. First thing i would do, is see if i had vacume to the egr valve. I think autozone will loan you a vacume tester. Pull the line off the egr valve, and put the guage in the line, or rubber hose that goes to the egr valve. Start the car and watch the guage. At idle it should not move, or very little. with the engine hot and held at about 2000 rpm you should get a vacume reading. The Vacume or EGR CONTROL SOLINOID looks like a small trash can, with a top on it. It will have a plug for electrical connection, and a plug that has two plastic vacume lines one is red the other is green i think. You cqn follow one line from the egr valve to the vacume solinoid if your not sure. It is about 2 1/2" tall and 1" in diamiter. Two nuts hold it on if i remember. Now for the DPFE, OR AKA the egr feedback transduicer. This is where i think your problem is going to be. It is about 3" long, 1" wide. It might be plastic or it might be metal both are the same, one is black, the other is silver. It will have two hoses attatched to it from a pipe that is tied to the exhaust pipe. NOTE ONE LARGER THAN THE OTHER, REMEMBER THIS WHEN YOU REMOVE THIS SENSOR. It will be mounted with two 10mm nuts i think. Remove the plug by pressing the loockin tab and pulling the plug off. Then remove the two hoses, noting where the larger of the two hoses are positioned. Remove the two nuts then the DPFE sensor. That all. Its not hard. That the best i can remember. its been a long time since i worked on the cars side of things. Let me know if you have a problem I will try to help if i can.
Best of luck. You will also need to have the codes cleared by autozone or the place that read your codes.

 

if it is a egr code and your not driving a crown vic than its dpfe (damn crown vic egr plug with carbon)

 

Where exactly is the dpfe at on my taurus?

Thanks.

 

dpfe is located right next to egr follow the tubes from egr and you cant miss it
differential Pressure Feedback EGR —Valve, 3.0L (4V)

Removal and Installation

Disconnect the battery ground cable. For additional information, refer to Section 414-01.
Remove the differential pressure feedback EGR sensor.
Disconnect the electrical connector.
Carefully remove the differential pressure feedback EGR sensor by sliding up and off the EGR tube.

To install, reverse the removal procedure.

 

I first replaced the egr valve and had the codes cleared, but the light came back on. So, I took that off and put the old one back on, returned it to Autozone and bought the dpfe sensor. I put it on drove back to Autozone and had the codes cleared again. I've drove about 100 miles now and the check engine light has not been on yet, knock on wood. Hopefully the sensor was my problem. Now if I could just figure out where my front end vibration was coming from I would be in good shape.

Thanks

 

Hey Kyle.
Alright good job. I hope the light remains off for you. Thanks for posting back to let us know how it is going.

 

Thanks again for all the help.

Kyle