Alfa 159 EGR removal & clean, Then things spiral out of control!

[@Piglife101]

The old oil burners build up a good bit of soot over the years. Had my Passat diesel carbon cleaned a few years back, £80 a guy comes around in a van, injects hydrogen through the intake to clean out all the old crap.

[@RollinRoadsUK]

That's definitely something I need to think of in future! That map sensor was crazy! And it was like fresh laid tar! God know what it has done to my injectors over the years? Full send for a couple of weeks with a fuel additive I think!

[@One_over_the_eight]

​@@RollinRoadsUKThe problem with that is all the loosened crud ends up going through your engine doing more harm than good and possibly breaking off a swirl flap causing catastrophic failure. The only safe and effective solution is to remove the intake manifold soak it in a bath of diesel overnight to dissolve all the carbon build up. This works on both plastic and aluminium manifolds. Remove and blank the swirl flaps while your at it but leave the actuator in situ to prevent an EML and error code.

[@RollinRoadsUK]

@@One_over_the_eight yes, having done a little research since, and cleaned the map sensor another 2 times! I imagine the intake manifold/ plenum chamber must be bogging! I've ordered a tap and die set and will be looking to remove the swirl flaps and clean out the system. At the moment I'm just going with the best quality diesel I can get and giving it some good drives. The car certainly seems happier now it's had a few motorway runs! 👍

[@One_over_the_eight]

@@RollinRoadsUK Also, you'll need to clean the throttle body as that'll be caked too from the EGR swirl chamber restricing air flow into the inlet manifold from the charge pipe. It's an easy job, just remove the three bolts holding the plastic charge pipe and then three or four bolts holding the throttle body to the inlet manifold, undo the anti shudder electrical connecter on the bottom of the throttle body. I noticed you've got the 1.9 JTDM with the plastic manifold, these cannot be split for cleaning so would need to be soaked in diesel. I changed mine for a splittable aluminium one from a 1.9 Vauxhall Astra as the Alfa Romeo, Vauxhall, SAAB and Opel 1.9s share the same manifold. It's a different procedure to remove the swirl flaps but easy just the same. Either way you'll need to remove the high pressure fuel pump as it's in the way of one of the manifold studs. The high pressure fuel pump drive cog can be locked in place with two of the cambelt cover bolts before removal so no need to remove the belt and the timing position will remain. Here's links of it being done on a Vauxhall with the same engine, it's in two parts: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d3PWaYx3m7xlhpI&ab_channel=retrorestore kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYOuZJeYrrKofqs&ab_channel=retrorestore

[@RollinRoadsUK]

@@One_over_the_eight this is awesome buddy thanks for the heads up and advice! I'm looking into all il need for the job but it looks like you have just written my list for me!! 👍

[@AlfaAddict]

Those clips are amazing. They tighten to the perfect tightness and look good without leaving any excess metal like a jubilee clip. All it takes is the special pliers (knipex ones are excellent). Once you have those, you'll change your mind. Nothing screams "stay away" than jubilee clips on a car.

[@RollinRoadsUK]

I managed to salvage and re use a couple of them but they never seem too clever once re used. I don't mind seeing jubilee clips, it shows someone has maintained a vehicle themselves and not just taken the word of a garage or a dealer. Thanks for the comment buddy 👍

[@AlfaAddict]

@@RollinRoadsUK I've always re used them with no leaks and no problems in the past. They are made to be re used

[@danhunt7287]

Good effort 👌

[@RollinRoadsUK]

Thanks 😊

[@MacTwain]

So... The Italian tune up worked?

[@RollinRoadsUK]

Yes... briefly. Unfortunately the ECU failed just a couple of weeks later and I sold the car to another 159 owner as a spares car. Thanks for commenting buddy 👍