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EGR Blanking plate


juany
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Hi, i have a 1.8tdci focus and wanting to put a new EGR blanking plate in and before i do that do i need any thing to put on the plate or can just put it on tighten the bolts and all done. many thanks

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11 hours ago, juany said:

i have a 1.8tdci focus and wanting to put a new EGR blanking plate in and before i do that do i need any thing to put on the plate or can just put it on tighten the bolts and all done.

Just make sure the mating faces are clean and smooth. The joints on both sides are pressurised to about 20PSI (turbo pressure), but it is just air on one side, exhaust on the other, so tiny amounts of leakage will make no difference. No sealant needed, though a bit of copperslip or high temperature grease might ease removing the plate later if wanted. Just ensure no gaps due to dirt in the joint.

The 1.8 takes a blanking plate quite well. You may notice a small improvement in response, especially pulling away. The EGR is shut at large accelerator openings & high rpm anyway, so it makes no difference there, unless it was faulty and leaking.

Downsides are a rather smelly exhaust, and very slightly less heat from the heater during warm up. Upside is less carbon in the inlet manifold.

 

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Hi peter, thank you for your reply and i will be installing the blanking plate over the weekend , i do notice that when i pull away there seems to be a bit of a lag and hopefully this will go once i put the blanking plate in,

i also notice that when i had my 1.9tdi golf x reg i did about 540 miles on a full tank of diesel and on my 1.8tdci focus im only getting around 420 miles on a full tank which the golf and focus took the same amount of diesel in there tank and im doing the same mileage and speed as i did in the golf.

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3 hours ago, juany said:

when i had my 1.9tdi golf x reg i did about 540 miles on a full tank of diesel and on my 1.8tdci focus im only getting around 420 miles on a full tank which the golf and focus took the same amount of diesel in there tank

I get about 49mpg in summer, and 47mpg in winter in mine, and that includes quite a lot of heavy trailer work, narrow lanes, and not much dual carriageway.

Are you referring to tank capacity, or the amount actually put in? These cars tend to indicate empty long before they are really low on fuel. Probably just as well as it may be a garage job to get the fuel through from the tank if run dry. I rarely get more than 40l in (46l was the max I think) from indicating empty to a full tank, despite the tank capacity claiming to be 53l.

420 miles on a 40l fill is 47.7mpg.

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Hi peter, thank you for your reply and i will be installing the blanking plate over the weekend , i do notice that when i pull away there seems to be a bit of a lag and hopefully this will go once i put the blanking plate in,

i also notice that when i had my 1.9tdi golf x reg i did about 540 miles on a full tank of diesel and on my 1.8tdci focus im only getting around 420 miles on a full tank which the golf and focus took the same amount of diesel in there tank and im doing the same mileage and speed as i did in the golf.

i was referring to the tank capacity as the focus and the golf took the same amount of diesel ( i get 48 Litres from empty to out of the spout ) 

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5 hours ago, juany said:

i get 48 Litres from empty to out of the spout

If about 8 litres of fuel was coming out of the spout and all over the floor, that could explain poor mpg :whistling:wink.png.

Joking aside, 48l and 420 miles is under 40mpg, which I think is rather below par for a 1.8TDCI, unless you are doing mostly short, urban journeys. 48l and 540 miles is 51 mpg, about what I would consider normal for a 1.8, with a decent mix of journey types.

Just possibly the EGR is sticking open a bit, and that would waste fuel at larger throttle openings due to insufficient oxygen to burn all the fuel. See what the blanking does before looking any further.

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Thank you for your advice and i will see how it goes first with the blanking plate and if still the same i will need to look a bit further regarding the fuel

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As TDCI Peter. I fitted one to my 1.8 tdci estate about 2 years ago. No engine warning light. Better (noticeable) pick up from low revs. Slightly worse mpg, which I think is due to the increase in performance and longer warm up time. Most of my runs are short. Even so my average mpg is 46 and on a run 55. Can't ask for more than that. I do not drive economically!

I thought the tank was 53 liters.

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18 minutes ago, ian1gail said:

I do not drive economically!

A good thing with Diesels is that you can drive them really quite hard, and they remain relatively economical. Unlike most petrol engines, where you really have to drive like an impoverished elderly school teacher to get any economy out of it.

It is because the Diesel cycle is inherently thermodynamically more efficient, and pushing it up to max power tends to increase this effect. They do not much like short runs, but 46 is still better than most petrols on similar short runs.

I don't think I have ever had 55 out of mine, 53 is the max. So yours must be in pretty good nick!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi ,  i have now fitted the EGR Blanking plate and i dont seem to have the lag and hopefully the fuel consumption should be a bit better.

thank you for all your advice and comments.

 

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Just make sure you put a solid stainless steel blanking plate on rest are rubbish mate.

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i bought a 2mm thick laser cut stainless steel blanking plate so far its seems to be working 

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  • 3 weeks later...

ive filled up the tank to the top and even with the blanking plate no difference in fuel consumption BUT there is no lagging when i pull away 

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2 hours ago, juany said:

ive filled up the tank to the top and even with the blanking plate no difference in fuel consumption BUT there is no lagging when i pull away 

That extra confidence on pulling away is a great feeling when you first fit a plate, I recall.

Shame about the fuel consumption, but the plate has little or no effect on mine either. It could be really hard work tracking down the cause without any error codes. But a couple of simple things are:

Any brakes binding? A disc would be hot even if little use was made of the brakes in that case.

Condition of the air filter. Blockage could be a cause.

Any leaks in the induction pipes and hoses? Check all the pipes and hoses from the turbo, via the intercooler to the inlet manifold. Lift out the airbox to check the pipe underneath, and feel round the back of all pipes. Also have a look at the intercooler for damage.

Another couple of things I would check are: does it pull smoothly in 2nd gear at idle speed (not touching the throttle), along an undulating or bumpy track, and is it lacking in power at the top end. There are not many places round here that I can legally & safely try that for more than a few seconds, in my 1.8. It needs quite a steep hill in 5th gear to keep it below 70mph!

If you are only getting 40mpg, then it could be costing £27 per 1000 miles in extra fuel. It could be worth taking it to a specialist to diagnose.

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  • 2 weeks later...

since my last post my focus has been running with no problems and the lagging seems to have gone but today the engine systems fault message came on the display whilst i was driving to work, could this be the blanking plate causing a problem many thanks

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1 hour ago, juany said:

today the engine systems fault message came on the display whilst i was driving to work, could this be the blanking plate causing a problem

I think it unlikely to be the EGR. On my car, EGR faults have always lit the EML (the lamp with the engine picture), not the systems lamp (circle with exclamation in the middle).

On the 1.8, just blanking the EGR should not make a lamp come on. But if the EGR is not working properly, the EML will come on whether blanked or not. It has to be able to move freely open & closed, as it is tested when you turn the ignition off. You can hear it whirring & clanking for a few seconds.

It needs a fault code reader to read the code. A Ford specific one like Forscan may be needed if the systems lamp is on, some of the codes that trigger this lamp will not be read by a generic OBD2 scanner.

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hi peter ,  the lamp that is on is the engine warning light and its on amber and also its not flashing, i bought the car 3 months ago from the garage and the mechanic who works there said its got 6 months warranty by law should i contact the mechanic and tell him ive got an engine systems fault message on the display.

many thanks 

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5 hours ago, juany said:

the lamp that is on is the engine warning light and its on amber and also its not flashing, i bought the car 3 months ago from the garage and the mechanic who works there said its got 6 months warranty by law should i contact the mechanic

Hmmm, it might be best to remove the blanking plate first. That would constitute a modification, and if they can use that to escape from any warranty claim, then they will, regardless of any direct cause or not.

I would read the code(s) anyway, if possible. If it is the EML, then any generic ODB2 code reader should do. Reading the codes changes nothing, and would be almost impossible to detect. Do not clear any codes if taking it to a garage.

Garages vary enormously in their honesty and integrity. Some will swear black is white before admitting there is a real fault (especially some Ford dealers!). Others will bodge and hide faults. One, as reported on this site, "cured" an ABS fault by disabling the ABS LED in the dash, leaving a potentially lethal ABS fault still present but hidden, on the car. The owner had Forscan, immediately saw what had happened, and raised hell with them.

Other garages will do their very best to identify and properly cure faults. So the more you know beforehand, the better.

The other problem is that it may be an intermittent or transient fault. This will self clear after a few start cycles, and then the cause will not be traceable. If it does not happen again, the garage will be unable to locate the fault. So prompt action is a good idea, whether getting it to the garage, or reading the code yourself.

 

 

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hi peter, took the car to the garage and had the ecu checked on a code reader and no codes showed and 1 code popped up was the key for some reason doing a self test and showing an error so im going to swap the key over and try that many thanks

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hi peter, took the car to the garage and had the ecu checked on a code reader and no codes showed and 1 code popped up was the key for some reason doing a self test and showing an error so im going to swap the key over and try then

 

i have swapped the key over and it came with the same message on the display engine systems fault but no engine management lamp showing but when i saw the code scanner screen it showed that everything passed except the powertrain module failed which the man at the garage said to try another key

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7 hours ago, juany said:

when i saw the code scanner screen it showed that everything passed except the powertrain module failed which the man at the garage said to try another key

It is a mystery to me at the moment, to be honest!

The code number might help, the error descriptions are usually quite specific, although not always helpful and sometimes downright wrong wacko.png, but it is a starting point.

The only key related function in the ECU (aka PCM, or Powertrain Control Module) that I know of is the immobiliser (PATS). But as the car seems to be starting ok, it can not be too serious an error.

At least it sounds like it has no link to the EGR.

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hi peter, took the car to the garage and had the ecu checked on a code reader and no codes showed and 1 code popped up was the key for some reason doing a self test and showing an error so im going to swap the key over and try then

 

i have swapped the key over and it came with the same message on the display engine systems fault but no engine management lamp showing but when i saw the code scanner screen it showed that everything passed except the powertrain module failed which the man at the garage said to try another key

i did take out the blanking plate before i went to the garage, there is no change on the performance of the car even with the engine systems fault message. i might try the manual key instead of the key fob and see if thats any different and any idea what the powertrain module is many thanks

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39 minutes ago, juany said:

any idea what the powertrain module is

The powertrain module (or PCM) is the engine management computer. It controls all engine functions from energising the injectors to controlling the EGR. It also handles the immobiliser, since this is the most secure way to prevent the engine from starting. Being all in the one module, there are no wires or connections to cut or "hot-wire" that could bypass the immobiliser.

The immobiliser (PATS) senses a chip inside the key. This PATS chip is separate from the remote control section, has no battery, and must be in all keys that can start the car. The remote control (central locking) is handled by a different module, namely the GEM or BCM, which is part of the passenger fusebox.

 

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hi peter, took the car to the garage and had the ecu checked on a code reader and no codes showed and 1 code popped up was the key for some reason doing a self test and showing an error so im going to swap the key over and try then

 

i have swapped the key over and it came with the same message on the display engine systems fault but no engine management lamp showing but when i saw the code scanner screen it showed that everything passed except the powertrain module failed which the man at the garage said to try another key

i did take out the blanking plate before i went to the garage, there is no change on the performance of the car even with the engine systems fault message. i might try the manual key instead of the key fob and see if thats any different and any idea what the powertrain module is many thanks

 

thank you for explaining the powertrain module is and if i use the manual key and the engine systems fault message appears and get the code read and it shows the powertrain module fail what happens next many thanks

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