Update: Removing swirl flaps did not help with the EGR error code. It is still there. And the job was enormous. But got the timing belt changed at the same time. Timing belt had to be removed anyway to get access to the swirl flaps.

For your issues I would not expect the swirl valves to be in anyway related to your problem so I'm not surprised their removal (were they removed or just made inoperative?).

Swirl valves are there to increase air flow velocity into the combustion chamber and thus help improve the diesel fuel and air mix before compression detonation takes place.

Yes the swirl flaps operate around 1800rpm but so does the EGR valve.

They were (mostly) removed. I didn't see how they did it in the garage but some parts had to be left in place. One of the flaps had it's mechanism working very poorly.

Any idea what to try next to get rid of the EGR fault code? Tampering with ECU is out of the question so some way to fool the sensor (MAF?)

Hello,
I've been reading alot about EGR, MAF sensor, DPF and stuff related to the common problems our Cromas have. I've recently found out about the so called "swirl flaps" and I went to my car to check if they are operating normally. I was very surprised when I found out that I DONT HAVE swirl flaps at all. Another thing I've noticed is that most of the inlet manifolds of 1.9 multijet autos are aluminium, but mine appeared to be ... kind of plastic. So is there a 1.9 mjet with no swirlf flaps ? My croma is 1.9 multijet automatic gearbox late 2006.

The plastic intake manifold has the swirl flaps on the lower side, impossible to see from the top.