Hi all

I've just blanked my EGR valve on my '09 Fiesta Econetic and although I've seen an increase in low down torque my average fuel economy seems to dropped quite badly.

Has anyone else seen this happen?

Regards

Jon

Yeah, that's normal, you will get a longer warm up time and worse economy with an EGR blank, especially at this time of.

12 hours ago, Bigyinuk said:

although I've seen an increase in low down torque my average fuel economy seems to dropped quite badly.

This is a different engine (1.8TDCI) but roughly similar effect. I think it is only worth blanking it off if it is misbehaving, and it is not practical to change or repair it.

I have been battling with a dodgy EGR since about 2012. Blanking it gave an immediate improvement in driveabiliy. More responsive & no unexpected power dips. Warm up time may have increased a little when blanked, as the EGR cooler helps heat up the water when in use. After repairing it (several times!) I removed the blank, and it was ok for a bit, but then soon played up again. A replacement EGR for the 1.8 was about £800, and a massive job as it is part of the inlet manifold.

Last Summer, the price of Chinese EGR actuators for the 1.8 finally dropped to under £50. That is not the whole valve, just the motor & sensor part. I fitted this, and it has performed well. It drives as well as when blanked. At first I was unsure of the economy, it seemed to drop. But I do a lot of hauling heavy trailers up and down hilly roads, so my MPG is a bit variable. When I finally did a decent motorway run over Christmas, I got one of the best MPG figures over the 500 mile trip that I have ever had. So I was well pleased with that.

I blanked mine off because I've done it before on a 1.4 Duratorque and it gave me quite a big improvement in torque / turbo spin up.  It was a quick(ish) job on my 1.6 and it should stop the oil getting so dirty quickly.  Plus IMO the whole EGR thing is a complete waste of time.  BUT I'm not sure I can live with the drop in fuel economy as the Econetic was just so amazingly good on fuel.  I'll have to run it for a month or two and try and figure out just how much it is affecting the fuel consumption.  If it is as bad as I think it may be, it'll be coming out !!!

1 hour ago, Bigyinuk said:

 It was a quick(ish) job on my 1.6 and it should stop the oil getting so dirty quickly. 

Blanking works better on some engines than others. The EGR is written into the ECU code & mapping. The ECU expects to see a drop in MAF reading when the EGR opens, as less new air should be entering the engine. They all react differently if they do not see this drop. Some put on a warning light, others just power the EGR full open and then make some assumption about the air / exhaust mix. Others may ignore it and assume the EGR is closed.

If they think the MAF is reading wrong, they make adjust its internal calibration factors, which might affect the amount of fuel put in at full throttle. On my engine it powered the blanked EGR full open (I have a readout on the dash!), but otherwise took no apparent action. So what works well on one engine may not be so good on another.

I don't think the EGR will affect the amount of carbon in the oil, unless it is faulty and making the engine smoke badly (before the DPF at least.) What it can do is add to the carbon that builds up in the inlet manifold and valve passages. Most of this build up is due to engine oil from the crankcase breather system, but this oil can combine with soot in the exhaust to make a tough deposit in the airways. However there is little evidence that this affects the performance of a turbocharged engine appreciably in normal road use.

So like you say, it is a matter of try & see. The ECU tuning to achieve those high MPG figures is complex & critical. If the EGR is not faulty, then economics of the fuel cost vs possible ultimate need to clean out the airways is the deciding factor.

If the EGR is faulty, then blanking it is a good way to help diagnosis, and a good temporary(ish!) cure.

On my 1.6 TDCI I used to average I think 45mpg. After blanking the EGR it went up to around 50 - 52mpg. One thing however was I got all 4 injectors reconditioned and installed at the same time so the injectors might of helped. The problem I had was one of the injectors were leaking. To be honest I don't think I've noticed it taking longer to warm up. 

My Econetic before blanking the EGR would typically average 65mpg, with my best economy being a 200 mile trip and 69.7mpg.  That seems to have now dropped below 60.  Still good compared to a lot of vehicles but a disappointing side effect.

As my EGR isn't broken its no big deal to remove it.  The blanking plate only cost £3 on eBay and it took me about an hour to get the plate in.  Getting it out should in theory be quicker as I know what needs to come off where and how.

As I say its worth me monitoring it for a while.  Sounds like fuel economy is likely to be poorer in this very cold weather, especially on short trips, so that might be a factor.