egr code - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

lawnguy · 10-31-2005, 03:30 PM

I have a 97 camry with 2.2 engine I think. About 90000 miles. The engine light has been on and auto zone pulled a code for the egr valve. Had a shade tree mechanic look at it and said the egr valve was fine. He could suck on the end and it would move. Also said it was not plugged and looked clean. He did not have any tools to go further.

I would assume that I have a vaccum leak before the egr valve. Does this sound right? If I put a guage on it what should the vaccum be?
Also could there be a sensor somewhere causing this code.
I will get the exact code and post it later.
Thanks in advance

tightcamry129 · 10-31-2005, 06:07 PM

i had one of the hoses, leading to the egr valve, ripped on one end and that caused my CEL to go off...

OEMonkey · 10-31-2005, 06:16 PM

P0401 usually but not all of the time, it means replacing the EGR VSV. It's a bitch to get to under the intake manifold. vac hoses marked #2 & #1 goes to that vsv. There's vac. diagram under the hood that you can reference to.

lawnguy · 10-31-2005, 09:24 PM

yes po401 was the code. the read out said could be the valve, egr pressure, temp sensor, or egr selonoid could be faulty. Does anybody know the ohm reading for the temp sensor? Or how tho check the egr selonoid also where is this located?

thanks

OEMonkey · 11-01-2005, 01:14 AM

I already told you where the solenoid is located. As far as I know, this 97 5sfe OBDII vehicle does not use a temp sensor on the egr circuit but I'm not entirely sure. The EGR monitor runs an intrusive test as part of it's trip by de-energizing the solenoid(since the switch is normally open when not grounded by the PCM) and looks at the MAP signal for the desired range. But if you say it has a temp sensor then I guess it does, after all it is your car.
As far as testing the vsv, I have bench tested a bunch of these from toyota vehicles and a majority tested ok. Only to have the same code come back. Replacing it fixed the problem.
Again, for a P0401, replacing the vsv seem to be the fix but not ALWAYS. You still have to diagnose the whole circuit such as clogged passages, faulty egr valve, transducer, backpressure, and what tightcamry129 mentioned; vac hoses. Good luck and post the fix so it'll help other members that do a search on this in the future.