Hello everyone!
I have been reading through a lot of the posts relating to dodgy EGR valves, and judging by what people have been describing, it seems to me that I have the same problem, or so I thought. - If you want to skip the life story, pop down to the bold bit, but I thought I would put all the info here anyway
MY parents bought me a beautiful 1.2L 12 valve 56 plate ibiza for my 21st, and ever since I've had it, its had a fairly jittery idle, that rarely stays at a stable RPM, very often dropping to 500rpm, and also sometimes cutting out completely when sat at traffic lights.
I have also found that if I'm sat at idle, and I bounce once in my seat, it can cause it to drop revs or cut out!
Anyway, I have taken it to 4 garages now:
1) - Mech #1 (VAG specialist ear my parents house) thought that it was a faulty injector, and that his computer was saying low compression cylinder 1 - I never had the injector replaced by him because he said that it would take 2 weeks and I was back off to my internship in bristol by then
2) - Took it to the local garage near Airbus in bristol where I had been advised by the professional engineers I work with that they are the best around and very honest - unfortunately they couldn't get my car to communicate with their computer, told me to go to the seat dealership in town
3) - Seat dealership told me £100 to diagnose the problem, which I very reluctantly agreed to. an hour later they said they hadn't yet found the problem, although it definitely didn't appear to be the injector as the VAG specialist said. Wanted £300 to strip the engine, ON TOP OF the £100 already quoted, so I told them to F.O and paid them nothing.
4) - Halfords Autocentre - Needed an MOT very urgently and they were the only guys that could fit me in, although unfortunately they failed the MOT on emmisions - said that their diagnostic machines stated faulty EGR valve and Coil Pack - they rang me back to say the changed the coil pack and the problem seemed to be better, it passed the emissions so they didn't change the EGR valve in the end to save me some money. This did improve the situation quite a bit, and I had the MOT thankfully.
Problem STILL isn't solved - I am spending approx £20 a week to do a 10 mile round trip each day monday-friday for work on petrol, albeit in heavy traffic, and the lumpy idling is still a problem.
So I decided to buy a VCDS cable (on its way still) and decided to try and fix the problem my self, and thought it was about time i started to get my hands dirty. First thing I wanted to try is to take the EGR valve off and give it a good clean.
Long story short
I can't find the EGR valve, although I think I can see where it should be?
Three questions:
1) Do people agree that my problem sounds like an EGR issue? - Why would I be getting all different readings from different garages?
2) Can someone point out where the ERG valve is in relation to the throttle body? I took the throttle body off and directly beneath it (facing towards the front left wheel) there is a rounded diamond shape part that looks like the typical EGR valve location, although it looks like its been blocked. Am I looking in the wrong place?
3) I took the throttle body off as I intended to give it a clean but its actually fairly clean already -the only thing is that when I hold it up to the light, there is a fairly significant angle to it in its 'closed' position - is it supposed to be fully closed when the engine is off or should there still be a fair amount of light coming through?
I have been reading through a lot of the posts relating to dodgy EGR valves, and judging by what people have been describing, it seems to me that I have the same problem, or so I thought. - If you want to skip the life story, pop down to the bold bit, but I thought I would put all the info here anyway
MY parents bought me a beautiful 1.2L 12 valve 56 plate ibiza for my 21st, and ever since I've had it, its had a fairly jittery idle, that rarely stays at a stable RPM, very often dropping to 500rpm, and also sometimes cutting out completely when sat at traffic lights.
I have also found that if I'm sat at idle, and I bounce once in my seat, it can cause it to drop revs or cut out!
Anyway, I have taken it to 4 garages now:
1) - Mech #1 (VAG specialist ear my parents house) thought that it was a faulty injector, and that his computer was saying low compression cylinder 1 - I never had the injector replaced by him because he said that it would take 2 weeks and I was back off to my internship in bristol by then
2) - Took it to the local garage near Airbus in bristol where I had been advised by the professional engineers I work with that they are the best around and very honest - unfortunately they couldn't get my car to communicate with their computer, told me to go to the seat dealership in town
3) - Seat dealership told me £100 to diagnose the problem, which I very reluctantly agreed to. an hour later they said they hadn't yet found the problem, although it definitely didn't appear to be the injector as the VAG specialist said. Wanted £300 to strip the engine, ON TOP OF the £100 already quoted, so I told them to F.O and paid them nothing.
4) - Halfords Autocentre - Needed an MOT very urgently and they were the only guys that could fit me in, although unfortunately they failed the MOT on emmisions - said that their diagnostic machines stated faulty EGR valve and Coil Pack - they rang me back to say the changed the coil pack and the problem seemed to be better, it passed the emissions so they didn't change the EGR valve in the end to save me some money. This did improve the situation quite a bit, and I had the MOT thankfully.
Problem STILL isn't solved - I am spending approx £20 a week to do a 10 mile round trip each day monday-friday for work on petrol, albeit in heavy traffic, and the lumpy idling is still a problem.
So I decided to buy a VCDS cable (on its way still) and decided to try and fix the problem my self, and thought it was about time i started to get my hands dirty. First thing I wanted to try is to take the EGR valve off and give it a good clean.
Long story short
I can't find the EGR valve, although I think I can see where it should be?
Three questions:
1) Do people agree that my problem sounds like an EGR issue? - Why would I be getting all different readings from different garages?
2) Can someone point out where the ERG valve is in relation to the throttle body? I took the throttle body off and directly beneath it (facing towards the front left wheel) there is a rounded diamond shape part that looks like the typical EGR valve location, although it looks like its been blocked. Am I looking in the wrong place?
3) I took the throttle body off as I intended to give it a clean but its actually fairly clean already -the only thing is that when I hold it up to the light, there is a fairly significant angle to it in its 'closed' position - is it supposed to be fully closed when the engine is off or should there still be a fair amount of light coming through?
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