FR150 New Owner - EGR & Other Questions...

[paul m]

so,

I've just bought myself a black '05 FR TDi150 & very much looking forward to picking it up! Its in excellent condition (apart from a few stone chips but i think these looked worse as the guy had just waxed it so they were white!)

I do however have a couple of questions...

Its got kumho tyres on the front - are thes any good on these cars (rears are decent michelins)?

Can anyone explain what an EGR valve is, and why I should clean it? I've seen numerous posts referring to cleaning / modding it but I haven't been able to work out what the benefits are of doing so!!! (This is my first diesel so be gentle!)

Is there anything else that I should do to make sure all is running well?

Thanks!

 

[MJ]

The egr system is an exhaust gas recirculating device which does as the name suggests, it recirculates spent exhaust gases back into the inlet manifold where they are re-burned in an effort to lower emissions.

You need to clean them on vag vehicles (particularly the tdis) because of a heavy build up of sooty deposites caused by the mixing of the engine crank case breather gases (oily damp gas) and the recirculated exhaust fumes (dry black sooty gas). This combination creates a god awful black, sticky sludge that builds up on the inside of the inlet manifold and can cause power loss, poor starting, heavy smoking, poor engine shut off due to a sticking anti-shudder valve.

Clean it or remove it - the choice is yours!

 

[sssstew]

Sounds like they fitted khumos on the front to save a bit of money.

EGR - as described above. You only need to clean it if your having issues. You can turn it down with VAG COM, otherwise on that engine your likely to get a EML warning light if you plug the vacuum hose for it.

So in summary - only clean it if you have a problem, maybe just pop the pipe off the side and see if its really blocked, this will be determined by the previous owners driving style/ driving conditions. Modding, this involved either removing it or reducing its function, no performance benefits but just stops it gunging up in the long run. Theres loads about this in this TDI section so have a read back through.

 

[S3 AKR]

Didn't think you could turn it down on a PD ?? There's notes on the Ross Tech site saying something to that effect.

 

[sssstew]

yeah thats right, ive linked to info about it in the tdi faq. after 2004 i beleive, some people with 150s have done this from memory though and the new figure stayed. hmm

 

[S3 AKR]

I might give it a go myself then!! Not bothered trying cos of the comments on ross-tech!!

 

[allh2k]

Kumho's suck badly! mine had them when I got mine and the first 6 months with them the TCS light was on alot! where as now with just Falkens on I hardly see it!! (probably just used to the car now tho)

 

[madmonk]

I would class the Kumho's as a good all round tyre. I have used Kumho KU31's on my FR+ (150 tdi) for the last 3 years.
The grip they offer is good when they are new but when they are half worn or more they tend to start sliping, they also get noisier the more worn they are. I get about 20k (12 months) out of the front and 40k (2 years) out of the rear.

At the end of the day you get what you pay for. There are tyres that will offer better grip in the dry or better grip in the rain, but for the price, they are very good tyres.

I have just fitted 4 new tyres to my car and they cost £272.00 incuding vat.