I was surprised to find out I had to smog again this year after just doing it last year. So I went down to my local Smog Star Station and had the test done. The test did not go well, apparently my NoX emissions were very high. The rest of the readings were in spec but the technician said they were high. He asked me if my EGR was had been cleaned and I told him yes since I had recently taken it out and given it a through cleaning. His recommendation was a new Cat. This was no surprise since that is generally the routine when I fail smog.
I came home and did some reading and what I found was that its not the EGR itself but the Passages in the intake manifold. I kept seeing lots of Write ups showing how to drill and pull the plugs and clean out the holes, this sounded like a huge pain in the tailpipe until I saw the video from Eric the Car Guy that the 5th gens have this handy plate to give us access to those channels. So I pulled it apart and could see quite a lot of build up on the channels but they didn't look blocked. So I cleaned it until it had a sparkly shine.
I then took a look at the actual ports on the Manifold and they were completely Solid with Carbon. I pulled out a drill bit and hand turned it in each hole, as I was turning it I was blowing away as much as the carbon as I could so it wouldn't drop into the hole. There was a good inch to inch and a half of blockage in each hole. Also I'm not sure if this is normal but the hole for CL4 was much smaller.
I put everything back together, fired her up, she ran extremely rough for about 20 seconds then smoothed out, I was worried for a second. The car feels sluggish now, almost like driving with the stock air box, so I guess the EGR is now working properly.
Ok long story here sorry, does anyone have any thoughts on how much having a functional EGR system will effect my NoX Emissions? I'm wondering if I should go ahead and retest now or get the new Cat installed first, I'm sure the Cat will cost between 250 and 300$. Any help would be appreciated.
I came home and did some reading and what I found was that its not the EGR itself but the Passages in the intake manifold. I kept seeing lots of Write ups showing how to drill and pull the plugs and clean out the holes, this sounded like a huge pain in the tailpipe until I saw the video from Eric the Car Guy that the 5th gens have this handy plate to give us access to those channels. So I pulled it apart and could see quite a lot of build up on the channels but they didn't look blocked. So I cleaned it until it had a sparkly shine.
I then took a look at the actual ports on the Manifold and they were completely Solid with Carbon. I pulled out a drill bit and hand turned it in each hole, as I was turning it I was blowing away as much as the carbon as I could so it wouldn't drop into the hole. There was a good inch to inch and a half of blockage in each hole. Also I'm not sure if this is normal but the hole for CL4 was much smaller.
I put everything back together, fired her up, she ran extremely rough for about 20 seconds then smoothed out, I was worried for a second. The car feels sluggish now, almost like driving with the stock air box, so I guess the EGR is now working properly.
Ok long story here sorry, does anyone have any thoughts on how much having a functional EGR system will effect my NoX Emissions? I'm wondering if I should go ahead and retest now or get the new Cat installed first, I'm sure the Cat will cost between 250 and 300$. Any help would be appreciated.