spiral

Im not familiar with which models use which engine. Is it possible either one of those use the gen4 engine? That makes a big difference.

here’s my line of thought:

the more miles on the ICE the greater the ERG will be clogged. Since the EGR is directly attached to the ICE and gets clogged with oil particulates, then it would stand to reason the more the ICE is working the more carbon will hit the EGR. I would further say that running for a long time (vs like 20-30 min city driving) will also accumulate more particulates as the oil will get hotter and be “cooled” in the EGR cooler.

It just so happened my cooler was extremely clogged. I soaked it for weeks, used ez off oven cleaner, to shed many many times, finally could at least blow air through it. Today it was warm enough I got the pressure washer out and spent some time on it. Thinking I got it cleaned, turned it over and still more $h!t came out. I could at least easily blow through it, but not “easily” and I still can’t see through it (not sure if I should be able to though).

I think, though, that your still better off cleaning it yearly and not take a chance.

sjw91

Both are Gen 3, like ours.

sjw91

BTW there's no oil involved (unless your car burns oil). It's cooling exhaust gases before recirculating them into the engine to reduce cylinder heat. Once your car is at operating temperature, the mode of driving shouldn't matter; the exhaust temperature should be be about the same.

spiral

I think we both agree thought that the point of a hybrid (any why the city mph is greater than highway) is that when using the battery, the ICE shuts off. Since the inverter doesn't have exhaust nothing passes through the EGR when the ICE is not operating. Therefore a clogged EGR is directly related to the use of the ICE.

I guess a bone of contention is the presence of oil. I agree with you that if the piston rings do their job, there shouldn't be oil in the combustion chamber....but I believe from reading all the posts regarding the Gen3 engine, it's quick consumption of oil, and the clogged egr system that oil particulates are getting past the rings and is the main culprit to this EGR issue. Also keep in mind, that the PCV passes from the block to the intake manifold and oil particulates can be passed into the chamber that way as well. My understanding is that at operating temps, the EGR is OPEN, therefore it is constantly having exhaust gases pass through the cooler and valve into the intake manifold. The cooling of those gases with additional oil particulates causes the oil to become a sticky liquid binding to the fins of the cooler, building up over time like arteriosclerosis. And that theory is why i believe that more ICE miles makes the problem worse, Which kinda explains why taxi's can get more miles without issue, but us highway commuters are having failures at lower miles. City driving turns off the ICE (hence no exhaust), so no gases pass through the EGR.

There is a priuschat forum of an engine rebuild that gets into the differences between Toyota's piston rings and aftermarket and why the Toyota's gen3 is having this issue. They made some tweaks to the rings in the gen4 as well as reconfiguring the egr from what i've read, but i don't have first hand knowledge of that so I could just be misunderstanding.

sjw91

Totally agree. And I apologize for misreading your previous post.

CTLemon

Does anyone know if the new head gaskets available in the market now are different in terms of thickness? Maybe Lexus has improved the quality of the gasket due to the ongoing issues? As per my earlier posts my head gasket went and I honestly think my car car was not properly diagnosed by the Lexus dealership that I was using. My mechanic informed me that the new gasket seemed to be a little beefier than the original .

TheRob

Just a heads up. I just called a shop here in Miami, FL that specializes in Toyota hybrid cars. They told me they can clean out the whole entire EGR system including the intake manifold for 250 dollars plus tax. Seems like a pretty reasonable price. Better than having to replace the parts. They also said it will take about half a day to complete.

E46CT

$250 sounds good. make sure they document with photos. that sounds like an easy way to go "yep i cleaned it" and just pocket $250

TheRob

Yea for sure. I’m going to ask them to document everything that was cleaned and ask them if they can take pictures. They seem like honest people from what I see on the google maps reviews. They also advertise “Get dealer service without dealer cost”. I’ll bite the bullet on this and keep you guys updated. I’m going to call tomorrow to schedule an appointment.

spiral

Rob, here is the best thread I have found documenting the whole process. I can't say for certainty, but I believe the YouTube video on EGR cleaning is the thread owner. Something about the way he talks and writes makes me think they are one in the same. If i get time, i might try to create a thread though that links to the good ones over at priuschat as well as all the uploaded vids.


I was watching Taryl Dactyl and Mustie1 today killing time and they were cleaning stuff with the Ultrasonic cleaner. I bet that's what these guys do. They just drop the parts in for a few hours and they come out squeaky clean. Maybe $20-30 worth of cleaner, that's some decent profit...but totally worth the cost to have them do it. Maybe I should invest in an US cleaner. Send me your parts, I'll do it for $195

CTLemon

My CT 200 h engine light is on after having the head gasket replaced? Car is running great but how can I reset that light?

sjw91

You can have the code checked and cleared at someplace like Autozone. It could just be something small like a loose gas cap.

CT200hRock

Hey Rob I live in FL too....were you happy with the work? I have 86000 on my CT and would like to get the EGR system cleaned and $250 sounds reasonable. Any way you can point me to this place? Thanks

TheRob

Yea sure man. The place I went to is in Miami. Honestly don’t know how good the work was done. I haven’t check myself. I have never taken any parts off from the EGR system off before. Here is the place I went to.


ToyoWorks Service Center LLC
12143 SW 114th Pl, Miami, FL 33176
(305) 254-0011
https://goo.gl/maps/MWn7F8f87g1Lc2yHA

KKM

That $250 price is super cheap which makes me somewhat skeptical. Going by current hourly rate for auto mechanic, that's about 2 hours or a little less. To pull the egr cooler and pipe, clean it all, and re-install takes at least 1/2 a day if they are fast. The cowl ,wipers, and wiper motor have to be disassemble to get to the cooler, unless they know a shortcut. The EGR pipe is easy to pull out so I would pull the EGR pipe and take a photo before and after to check if the work was done.
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