jgabem

Which way is easier to replace the egr pipe on a 1996 LS400, Lexus tech says tranny method a mechanic says removing intake manifold, which takes more time and money if done by a regular shop and not the Lexus dealer?

RAINBOW

They're both out of their minds.

billydpowe

iTrader: (1)

takes about 3 hours, remove convertor on RHS and lower rear engine support, get after it.

williamb82

on my 93 its 3 bolts and 2 nuts. all can be reached without removing the trans or intake manifold. 2 bolts holding the pipe to the back of the intake. 1 bolt holding the pipe to the back of the drivers side head, then 2 nuts on the top of the passenger side exhaust manifold. all are 12mm. found this out yesterday pulling a head at the junkyard. its a tight fit for the top 3 bolts but not too bad. a ratchet wrench helps the bolt on the back of the head alot. the 2 on the exhaust are easy to get to after pulling the cat. if you got small arms, and its on a lift, prolly dont even have to remove that.

Lzam

Yeah just had mine done on my 96 my mechanic charged me $75 he said it wasn't bad you don't have to drop the trans or remove the intake.

williamb82

btw, you dont have to buy a new egr pipe. if your mechanic can weld, its easy to weld up the crack an then reinstall it. they all seem to crack in the same place from what i can tell. ill take pics of both the ones i have here and again after i weld them up.

3UZFTE

Someone not to long ago did a DIY with a flexible hose that is normally found on a drier, iirc. Pretty cheap and easy fix if I say so myself. When I deleted my EGR, I didn't do either and it took me an hour or so.

dashan

copy and paste, credit goes to Simon the British.
On the Generation TWO car 1995 on there are 2 EGR pipes.
A short one at the top and a longer one at the bottom.
They do NOT join together, which I thought they did to start with.
They individually connect to the back of the manifold separately.

(IF it is the top pipe blowing, you can see it all at the top of the engine, and I think it ie VERY easy to replace.)

NORMALLY, it is the bottom pipe that goes.
The mechanic advised me to let him do it, he also said I needed to drop the steering box and remove the CAT.

Basically the pipe has a flange at each end.. It connects from the top of the manifold feeder into the cat at the bottom end. The top end it goes onto part of the back of the inlet manifold.

In principle, you just need a ratchet handle with a long extension, a U-joint and a 12mm socket, and patience.
Undo the bottom 2 bolts from the top of the engine under the hood. Undo the Top 2 bolts from under the car on the floor.

I put the car onto ramps so that I could easily get under it. And I had a box to stand on so I could do the bits under the hood.

See the pictures attached and read the next bits too.

Drain off about 5 litres of engine coolant.
Remove the "heating valve" that is attached to the bulkhead at the back of the inlet manifold.
Take off the vacuum pipe (small diameter) from the manifold that feed the brake servo. (might be different on your LH drive car, mine is RH drive of course).
Take off the water pipe (another small diameter pipe) from the back of the manifold.
Just bend these 2 pipes out the way, You should now have enough room to get closer to the top of the EGR pipe.

Do you have small hands, it would help. And a helper too would save a lot of time.
I used a 1/2 inch ratchet, made up with a 9 inch extension, 1/2-3/8 reducer, 3 inch extension, 3/8-1/4 reducer and a UJ, then a 12mm socket. I would a little tape round the UJ so it was prevented from falling over to 90 degrees and encouraged to be mostly straight. I might have been just better off with a wobbly joint, next time! (yup, I would do it again).

I chose to use a six sided socket, I really DID NOT want to risk rounding the nuts at all.

Send your helper under the car, feed the socket and extension down to him and ask them to position the socket onto the nut that you can just see. Make sure they have their hands clear, just in case the socket slips off. A quarter turn and the nut should be free, just wind it off, no washer. At the bottom end of the EGR pipe, both of these are nuts. Mine came off easy and there was no rust.

The other bottom nut was harder. I used a 1/4 inch 12mm socket and a baby 4 inch ratchet. There is no room to lever it with your hand. It is right by the steering box, but yours is probably on the other side??? My baby ratchet has a hole in the end of it. I tied on some cord and threaded it up into the engine bay towards the radiator. I yanked on the cord to start the nut off, easy once it was started.

Same principle for the top of the EGR pipe, but in reverse.
You go under the car and the helper is up top.
As I did not have a helper, I put a piece of string around the neck of my socket, see pictures.. I needed the wire noose, so that it did not wind up the string.

I remember for the top bolts (yes bolts with washers that don't fall off) you have to route the socket and extension bar a different way to get to each bolt.

I also used a magnetic pick up stick to make sure the nut do not fall into some where where it could not be retrieved from when doing the top 2 nuts.

The pipe will come out the bottom of the car and you will see the damage, soot from the blowing and probably very weak at the joint. Mine was only held together in a small place, right at the end of the concertina bit.

Clean up the manifold ends that the new pipe will attach to, I just used a clean rag.

Make sure that the new pipe will fit on, I do not think you want to bend it (they say you have to bend a generation ONE pipe to get that on). Mine went on easily, and came out again easily.

There is a thin stainless steel gasket that will clip onto the top end flange of the new pipe.
There is a more normal metal gasket to go onto the bottom end, which fits over the 2 studs.

Put the new EGR pipe on and tighten them up as much as you can.

Good luck and let me know if you need any more help.

Please DO ask questions and I will expand this explanation ready for posting on the site.

Look at the other pictures and have a think about it.

I would do it again with out hesitation, I had to do it on my own and it only took 6-8 hours, no rushing, just pottering really and all that money saved.

WOW WOW WOW, it is SO quiet now, even more of a joy to glide around in.

Good luck.

Simon.

PS, and the comfort of a second car, just in case, helped me too.
I'm doing the cam timing belt next, 12ok miles is just up.

moat

Those of you who know or have replaced your EGR pipe, can you confirm: that for 93 LS we don't have to remove the transmission to replace the EGR pipe? Is the true for both sides?

DonCorleone

iTrader: (6)

You don't have to, it's a pain if you don't have a long enough wrench to reach the mounting tab bolt somewhere in the middle but it's doable.

imdanomite

this was the first thing i did when i bought my 96 LS.

took me about 30 mins. you just need some basic hand tools, PB blaster, and patience. no need to drain anything or drop anything.

LScowboyLS

@imdanomite - was it the lower portion that cracked on your 96?

I have a 96 too - do they sell just the lower portion of the pipe?

jtamulis

iTrader: (1)

Yeah I have a 96 that needs it as well, I think it's the lower pipe, was it really only 30 min for the lower pipe?!

Shiryo

I'm doing my starter and I just broke my lower (#1) EGR Pipe earlier today and ordered a new one from Sewell with the two gaskets for $120.05.

The fastest way to do it is drench both Driver and Passenger exhaust pipes from the cats and the passenger cat bolts up top in PB Blaster or WD-40, while you let those soak, pop the passenger front wheel off and grab your tools.

IIRC, you will need 13 and 14mm sockets (preferably impact) and complimenting wrenches.

2 bolts per exhaust and then the 3 bolts for the cat. There's a hidden 3rd bolt towards the cabin of the car on the cat, you'll need up to about 7" to a foot of reach for that bolt.

Once you pulls those off you'll see the 4 bolts (2 bottom, and 2 lower) for the EGR. What I would do is use a 3/8 breaker bar and about 2 feet of extensions to reach the upper bolts as you have a chance of stripping them if you try and go behind the intake.

All this was mentioned earlier in some way, shape, or form. Just verifying that dropping the exhaust will be your fastest way.

P.S. I did not destroy any of my exhaust or cat studs, got lucky, but if I did; i'd run to my nearest TruValue equivalent and get some 12.8 grade stainless steel bolts and nuts and use those instead... Much easier.

damon

With help I had a really good write up for this procedure on 94 model here ages ago.
No need to drop tranny or remove intake.

Soak the bolts on the Cat the day before you start!