22 February
A Clean EGR Valve and I Can Pass the NOX Testing
I have an older Ford Bronco, a little over ten years old. Recently, my city decided that in order to keep the air cleaner it is now requiring all cars to partake in emissions testing and follow very strict guidelines. Something about this made me a little uneasy, probably because I haven’t had a lot of work done on my vehicle in the past year or so because money has been tight. It hasn’t broken down or anything, but I was sure it wasn’t in tip top shape.
I finally took it in to do the emissions test, and I failed the NOX portion of my test by over 200 parts per million. This seemed like a huge deal to me because I didn’t think that my truck was in that bad of shape. I figured if there was a way to fix this I could do it on the cheap by looking at the Ford Bronco repair manual, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of that thing. I felt pretty useless reading through all the technical jargon and not knowing what any of it meant. This is why I should have taken Auto Repair in high-school, then I wouldn’t have such a problem.
I ended up taking it to a great mechanic friend of mine who took one look at it and the test results and looked worried. After a little bit of time he diagnosed it with having a partially plugged exhaust passage. He said that this passage feeds the Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) valve. This was the whole cause of my problems and all he had to do was clean it out. It was really simple and even showed me how to do it, although he said that I shouldn’t have to do it again for a long time. He later told me that his worry was that he thought for a little while he was going to have to replace the valve. I’m really glad he didn’t have to and he just had to clean it. Now I can get my truck tested and not have to worry about failing the test again.
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