Hi all,
I appear to have 'something' wrong in the EGR system. That's what the dealership said. The engine light was on intermittently and I had it in the shop for a heater control valve already. They said they didn't have anything specific, a 'hard code' I think she said. She said the heater control valve may have been causing the light, but now it's on all the time. My dumb question is, does that system affect the operation or performance of the car? If it only reduces emissions, can I just ignore it? It's a 30 year old car and I don't have to pass any inspections in Texas. I used to do all my own mechanic work, but I'm a lot older than I used to be and all this newfangled technology is black magic to me. I've done some homework, and it seems like I can read basic codes but no farther than the 71 "EGR malfunction" code that's kinda vague.

 

I purchased my SC300 with an EGR delete from the previous owner, the car drives and runs as usual, nothing really out of place. If you search on these forums there is a way to block out the CEL with a resistor

heres a start: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/per...istor-fix.html

If you research online, most will say that the EGR can cause more harm than good due to the recycling of the exhaust gases running back through the engine can cause carbon buildup, so most opt to delete it with a block plate (as the previous owner did with mine).

I will be attempting to use the resistor to block out the CEL soon, will update when finished.

 

Some vehicles are finicky about EGR and will run worse without it. The SC is not one of those vehicles, so there's no performance harm in just ignoring the CEL if that's all it is. In theory, you might have a slight loss in MPGs at highway cruising speeds when EGR would kick in.

 

Thanks friends. I guess that means for now, my lazy *** don't have to do nothing so I like that answer. I'll look into the resistor bypass thing when I feel a little less lazy.