Been a while...2001 GV 2.5 auto, K&N air filter, BFG KO's 215.70.16, magnaflow secondary cat and muffler with 2.25 inch pipe, 165k miles.

Took a trip to Portland last week (live in Medford) and Sunday coming home on the 5, I stopped for an A&W to goose my sugar and get me home.  As soon as I got to speed on the freeway, the check engine light illuminated. 70 miles from home.  I had been pulling some passes pretty hard (heavy load) and the temps were about 40-45F at most of the elevations but passes were probably nearer 35.  It was wet mostly.  (Oregon sunshine!!!)  Also relevant (maybe) is that I went thru 3 tanks of gas in metro city driving while there.  Also mileage seems to be reduced.  But that could be running more accessories and the gear in the rear.  (I was afraid of O2 sensor codes, eh.)

Favorite local parts store pulled code for me, and sure enuf, it said the egr was faulty.  As I had this same sort of experience during the coldest days of winter last year (apparently old EGR's do not like cold weather), I figured to reset the computer as before and then wait for the light to extinguish. 

Son of a gun, before I could do anything about it, the light went out on its own while bringing wife home from office on Monday.

IIRC. others have had similar happenings.  I do have a spare (19k miles used one) from Hawk that I got last year.  Hate to R&R if not nec.  Not the easiest placement as I remember.

Ideas?  opinions?  Guesses?  all are welcome.

Thanks, Pat

I had some problems with the egr valve too.....soo here is what I did......I went to a junkyard  and got one for 40 dollars Canadian  so that I would have 2 egr valves......cleaned the one from the junkyard to the point that it was shining........then replaced the faulty one.......kept the faulty one.....and repeated the cleaning process on that one..........every 3rd or fourth tank of gas I use some high octane fuel (91) just so that cheap stuff dont clog it up.......doing a super clean to the egr valve also increased my mileage slightly besides getting 640 km a tank I now get around 700....did not think the egr could make that much of a difference

The balck EGR port on the rear of the intake manifold gets carboned up. Then starts to carbon up the egr.

Additionally, the ECU's diagnostic capability can be finicky when sampling older engines / components that are no longer spanking new. This WILL lead to the occasional out of spec sampling results error, that typically clear themselves after several start / stop cycles. Case in point...Suzuki recommends replacing O2 sensors every 100K! In other words, don't worry too much about intermittent CEL light activity in an older Zuki.

  Well. I agree that maybe last years EGR codes were related to this kind of thing, but at 165K miles, and with other symptoms of clogged egr (lower mpg, loss of power, shifting issues (auto), and ruff running) I will shine up the extra one I have and then clean the tube and whatnot, R&R the egr, and see what occurs.  Also should help that it is due for plugs, PCV valve, and fuel filter.  All of that will be done this week.

And I guess that we will go after the timing chain tensioner.  The hydraulic ports are probably clogged.  Lots more valve train or tensioner noise on cold start. 

Saw a local ad yesterday for a 2002 XL-7 for $8K.  Saturn used lot.  Was gonna get the wife a new runabout for town, but would want AWD or like that.  If she agrees, will see about the XL-7.  Should make maintenance issues easier having two similar vehicles.

Probably help to get the garage cleaned out and the trucklet back in there at night. 

Thanks for the posts on this.

Pat

Don't go just by mileage when it comes to replacing parts.

I've got 234,600 miles on my 99' and the engine proper hasn't been touched other than an O2 sensor and the A/C compressor recently. That includes the EGR, chains / tensioners and even the clutch.