Anyone any idea how to safely test one of these now it's off the car.

It normally takes a square wave so guess it's not an easy job :chin:

OK, turns out to be very easy.

Firstly get engine temperature up to at least 20C. You can drive it fine without the solenoid attached.

TEST 1
Now holding the solenoid (plugged back into the loom) press down the plunger with your thumb.

Get someone to turn ignition on (to CHECK position). You should notice a distinct pulse under your thumb as the EGR system is checked.

TEST 2
I'd suggest removing your thumb at this point. Get the other person to start the engine. The plunger will now be extended rock solid and will be almost impossible to hold down. (EGR is active at idle)

As mine seemed to check out OK, I decided to check if the EGR valve was blocked. Removed the right hand elbow pipe to the inlet manifold. This looked remarkably clean (just a light coating of soot) but did find a fair amount of gunge in the port to the inlet manifold.

Did a mpg check with both EGR disabled and EGR active and made an interesting discovery. With the EGR disabled you become aware of quite annoying dash rattles. With EGR reconnected these rattles just disappear so it seems the engine must run smother with an active EGR system.

The EGR system is completely disabled under 20C (water temp.) so this might explain why JTD's can be a bit rattlely (including the sky-roof) until they get warm.

So what figures did I get on consumption:

• Gentile low speed climb [EGR disabled] = 50.3mpg
• Gentile low speed climb [EGR active] = 50.3mpg (I kid you not )

Looks like my search for poor fuel consumption continues

Hi There, I removed the solenoid and carried out these tests. I could not feel the solenoid as described, and the solenoid shaft only protrudes about 1/4" from the face of the solenoid. How far should it protrude when extended? I measured a resistance across the soleniod coil, and also about 8-9 volts(dc) on the connector plug with the solenoid disconnected an ignotion on. The fault I have with the car is the turbo not comming in until about 2800rpm. Do you think this may be the fault? I will try to get an error code from the CPU this week, but there is no engine warning light on.

Regards

Andychat...

andychat said:

Hi There, I removed the solenoid and carried out these tests. I could not feel the solenoid as described, and the solenoid shaft only protrudes about 1/4" from the face of the solenoid. How far should it protrude when extended? I measured a resistance across the soleniod coil, and also about 8-9 volts(dc) on the connector plug with the solenoid disconnected an ignotion on. The fault I have with the car is the turbo not comming in until about 2800rpm. Do you think this may be the fault? I will try to get an error code from the CPU this week, but there is no engine warning light on.

Click to expand...

Andy, can you push the spring loaded plunger down and are you sure your engine is hot enough?

Once activated, it can't be pushed down anymore and test 2 is very clear cut - once activated it's liable to take your thumb off

It's not likely to effect your problem anyway as I think it's always OFF above those revs.

Sounds more like an overboost valve defect although you'd expect an engine warning light if that was the case (perhaps the fault is still below threshold).

Hi again all,

I have fixed my problem, although I'm still not sure the egr solenoid is working.

The small vacume powered push rod thingy attached to the turbo (I'm sure this is not the correct name. hehe), was given a drop of oil and pushed up and down a bit (it looked a bit rusty). The car now drives as it should do, (Like an F1 Diesel!).

When I tested the solenoid as described above, the rod did not move under any condition (ignition on/off, engine running or not). I could push the solenoid rod back into the housing in all conditions it felt like it was just under an internal spring pressure.

Thanks to all for the help

This forum rocks....

Andychat