I have a '95 blazer 4.3L Vortec, that I recently purchased and is at the shop with a clogged EGR> detected by the the code. How hard would it be for me to clean it myself? I'm fairly new to tinkering with cars and don't really know how to go about it. I've done a search on here already and by what I've read it doesn't seem to hard but the shop is wanting to charge me $500 just to take off the upper cylinder and take a screw driver to clean off the carbon buildup and then just put it back. What do you think?

 

DO IT YOURSELF. Actually pretty easy to do, use search function and search for EGR.

 

Yeah I've already done the search and from what I have read doesn't sound complicated. Correct me if I'm wrong but to find the EGR valve I need to go from the exhaust manifold and trace the line up from there.

The mechanic that explained it to me said that it would be a 4 hr. job for them to do it (hence the $500) but every post I've read on this forum that has a time frame says 30 mins.

I just got off the phone w/ the mechanic again and he said that he could give it a temp fix by attaching a air compressor the the valve and blow out the debris, but that would be a $100 bucks. I'm thinking this guy is either out to get me or needs to pay for an upcoming vacation.

Thanks again hillbilly for making my decision alot easier. I'll let you know how it turns out when I do it myself.

 

its not a 4 hour job, you can have the EGR valve off in less than 5 minutes. Take your plastic intake off and look at your throttle body, then look down and "in" towards the motor. It is a small cylinder looking thing with a wiring connector and its held in with two bolts. Remove the bolts and you can wiggle it out, its a little tight, but you dont have to remove the upper intake manifold like the mechanics do. Use some carb cleaner to clean it out. Before you put it back on, do yourself a favor and go to Advance Auto and order a "Kleen-Screen gasket", its a new gasket with a wire mesh screen to keep the carbon from clogging the EGR valve, you have to clean it off about every 10,000 miles, but it keeps the clogging from occuring, best $13 I have spent on my 95. My EGR valve clogged 6 times before I found that gasket.
Also, I had the "service" done to get all carbon buildup out of the EGR passages, less than 2 months later it clogged again, waste of $30.

 

Yeah, definitely do it yourself.

 

I finally got around to this yesterday and let me tell you, easy as could be. It took me all of about an hour to do and with the carb cleaner and the new gasket for the EGR w/ the screen manufactured in to it cost me all of $10 bucks.

Thanks everyone that took the time to actually help a brother out.[sm=groupwave.gif]

 

Glad we could be of some help!