Hey Dave,I tryed putting vac. on egr valve the engine starts to stall a bit then it picks back up to just a little under idle.What does this mean?I noticed that when I shut the engine off the EVR solnoid makes a humming , rattling noise until the vac. dies off. Also to top it off i went to a ford dealer today on my way home from work to pick up the intake gaskets they gave me the wrong ones. Try again ,I did pick up a repair manuel should be big help! THANKS AGAIN, Hey is it gettn cold up there yet ?

 

If the engine just stumbled a bit and then recovered I'd say that you dont have enough EGR flow.
Hopefully when you pull the throttle body off you'll find the problem.
It's been getting a bit cold here already. Hit about 65 today and will probably go down to 50 tonight.
What about there?

 

Hi Dave, today was about 75 and rained all day same for sat. whats goining to be fun is i have to do the repair outside in my dr.way,my garage is only a 1 car and my race car(70 chevelle) is in there with the rear torn out for repair.went to get right gask. today but they were closed try again in the a.m. the dealer sold me an upper intake gask. but mine (4.6) looks to be 1 piece i think the 1 they sold me goes to a V6 and I need to get the throttlebody gask. and thermastat gask.to pull intake if needed, Deer season starts next week gotta get this done,well thanks again for all your help and I will check back after pulling the throt. body

 

Hey DAVE, well I pulled the throttlebody off this morning ,I found that the ports to the EGR were completely stopped up! Itook the butterfly section off, dug out all the carbon and sprayed it out with carb. cleaner. The truck hasnt run this good since i bought it ! I never thought I would ever get it fixed, funny i had to use the comp. to do it!Dave its a great thing your doing here ,Thank you sooo much for all your help,keep up the good work! If your ever in Maryland look me up,SEE YA.

 

You're welcome
And thanks for letting us know what you found.
It's starting to become a very common problem on here.

 

This thread has been extremely helpful so I thought I'd pass on my experience. My 96 Explorer 5.0 XLT had the Check Engine light come on, and a code reader borrowed from Autozone indicated 401 - Insufficient EGR Flow (something like that). Took it to the dealer, who insisted on charging $99 diagnostic fee despite the fact that I knew the area the problem was related to (I asked him to test the EGR valve and sensor). They wanted to charge me $153 for a new EGR valve and $60 for a new sensor and about $250 labor. I asked to speak to the mechanic, and asked him how he knew BOTH components were bad. He said he manually applied vacuum to the EGR valve, and it was stuck closed until he applied about 30 inches of vacuum when it "popped" open. So I asked, is it still sticking, and he said "well, no, but it could stick closed again at any time". So then I said why do you believe the sensor is bad too? He said, "if it was my car, I'd replace the sensor if I was replacing the valve". So I then asked if he found any other problems with the EGR system, and he said the vacuum line to the valve (I think he meant to the solenoid...) looked dry and cracked so probably should be replaced. He said a new hose would get "better" vacuum to the valve since the old one is probably leaking some. So I said if this was your car, but you were going to get rid of it soon, what would you do? he said-"Replace the hose and hope the valve doesn't stick again". I told him to just replace the vacuum line ($3 hose). As you might have guessed, the $3 hose fixed my problem for several weeks now. If or when the 401 code comes back, I'll then consider replacing the valve. BTW, the local Checker Auto parts guy told me the valve was a special order if I wanted to buy one. He said they don't stock them because they rarely need to be replaced! So I think the moral of this story is start with the cheap-side of the EGR system - the vacuum lines leading up to the valve etc. Replacing vacuum lines and cleaning the various ports it flows through should be the starting point rather than replacing the expensive valve and sensor - those should be the LAST thing tried, and only if they are tested and proven to not be working.

 

Hi drhinkle and welcome to the forum
Thanks for the tips.
I've seen a few EGR valves stick before too.
I think that if it stuck once it will probably stick again but if breaking it free works it's probably worth trying.

 

I am also a sufferer of the code PO401.Just yesterday-90K miles. My 2001 f-150 6 cyclinder...Put vacuum to the EGR- Truck wanted to die ..So The sensor???Now this sensor is more or less a switch.Right?So can it be jumped? Before I buy a new sensor $35.00 AutoZone, I'd like to perform a test & see it fail. My truck being a 6 cylinder has this sensor on the passenger side. It has two heavy metal tubes(for vacuum) attached. Am I at the correct place? Also, Just for my knowledge, where does initial current originate?At the EGR regulator or theDPFE.
Greatly appreciated, Chuck

 

Hey Chuckie49,
The way i understand this is when you apply vacume to the E.G.R and the truck stalls then the E.G.R. is good. I just completely cleaned my fathers E.G.R. sytem and reset the check engine light and the truck ran fine. That evening the truck started running bad again. I then found a sight where a tech diagnosed the problem as the D.P.F.E. sensor. So iI now have to check the ohms of the D.P.F.E. sensor and possibly change it top make his run better.
Bill

 

Hey, do you guys mind if I join the E.G.R. party? 97' 4.6 135k, been happening about a year. Just got my codes checked last night. 401, 402, 174. E.G.R. Insufficient flow, and 02 sensor lean were two of the three descriptions. So I've read over this forum and will start working on this over the weekend, but my question is, if your intake ports are clogged, is it necessary to remove the throttle body to clean them. Could spraying card cleaner help at all?

 

Depends on how bad their clogged, and if your's are causing problems then their most likly past just spraying.

 

Hello to all of my new Ford Friends! Hope you all had a great Christmas.Thanks much for the advice on solving my po401 problem. Here is what I did:
A couple of weeks ago Service Engine Soon came on on my 2001 F-150 v6 90k miles truck (original owner). Went to Autozone & rented the ORBII scanner. po401 code came up-insufficent EGR flow.Most of the responses on this site directed me to replacing the DPFE sensor-did't want to until I checked out the EGR valve. Was recommended to put vacuum to EGR while running-truck wanted to die-so... EGR system seems to be working & probably not plugged. Now I felt comfortable replacing the sensor. 40 bucks with tax at the dealer for the part.Took 18 seconds to replace!Been driving truck for 500 miles since. No problems!I was impressed with the OBII code checker I rented. So impressed that I bid on one on EBAY & won.70 dollars with shipping! Now I can check my truck anytime, My son's Toyota Tundra, my other son's Honda Accord & my wife's Prius(yeah Prius-had since July 1st & have only put about $150.00 of gas in it-55-60mph-cool car). Back to my truck-this is a great forum-I'm sure a dealer would have kept on replacing everything racking up hundreds of dollars. I want to thank all who responded to help me.
Peace & Happy New Year. Chuck in San Jose,Ca.

 

Good to hear that you got it solved Chuck

With some practice maybe you can become the neighborhood OBDII guru and pay for that scanner by using it

 

I am having the same problem, weird part is if I clear the code it may stay off for days at a time. Then just come on and stay on till I clear it. I had poor milage and the surge racerguy spoke of. I replaced the egr and all that went away.

 

Just tore mine apart last night and low and behold both EGR ports were completely clogged. Actually had a hell of a time cleaning them; mostly because I only removed the throttle body to get to them. Also, sprayed my DPFE hoses and they were pretty filled with deteriorated hose crud. Either way, I appreciate the help guys. Your advice saved me some hard cash.