cogzoid

Greetings, I just bought a 2001 E320 Wagon with 150k miles and it's got a few issues that I need to resolve, so I can get it smogged. (It was cheap, and I knew it had issues.)

The car runs, but it idles a little rough, and the CEL is on. My friend plugged in his OBD scanner and pulled a few codes related to the EGR and O2 sensors. Of course, in his haste he cleared the codes before I could get the full info off of the reader (jerk). Time to order my own OBD...

Anyway, yesterday I did my first tinkering under the hood. I found a couple of small holes in vacuum lines (one went back towards the dash, possibly AC flap control, the other went to the diaphragms on the top of the crankcase on the front of the engine, not 100% on what they are). I pulled the air duct off to get to the EGR. I removed the EGR and made sure that it wasn't completely plugged up or anything. It seemed in decent shape. Putting vacuum on the thing opened up the valve. I heard that the EGR feed tube can get clogged with soot and oil, but I was unable to remove it without pulling the valve cover. But based on the not excessive gunk in the EGR, I'm assuming it's fine.

In general I need to give this car a tune-up. If you have any suggestions on things I should change while giving this thing an overhaul, please let me know.

Things on my list:
Spark Plugs
Engine Oil (Done)
Transmission Fluid (possibly sealing a leak?)
A few cosmetic issues

While it's on my mind... I realize that EGR valve didn't stay open when I applied my handheld vacuum pump. I had to keep squeezing every few seconds to keep it open. Is this normal, or should I consider the EGR valve busted?

Thanks in advance for all of your help!
I'm a handy guy in general, but I don't know everything there is to know about cars.

dbldpr

Welcome and good luck on your project

cogzoid

My OBDII reader came in... I'm sure you all know P0400 would be on there. Unfortunately, no other clues from that...

Most EGR valve issues are because it doesn't open up, or flow is constricted. In this hypothetical the car would run just fine at start up, and just have worse emissions when it's warm. My car idles pretty rough, especially when cold. It seems as if the EGR is stuck open or something. However, when I pulled the EGR out, the valve seemed to close just fine, unless I applied my hand vacuum pump. Something else seems to be wrong.

Any clues on things to check?

cogzoid

Well, I cleared the EGR fault code and took the car for a spin yesterday. I put over 50 miles on her with no CEL and no major problems. Some city driving, some highway driving. So, for now I'm going to assume that the EGR is working, and perhaps replacing the extremely brittle vacuum hoses did the trick.

The car still runs a little rough at idle. I still haven't swapped the plugs and wires though. I'll report back after I try that.

Another problem that might keep me from passing my upcoming smog test is a screwy speedometer. The analog speedometer seems to only kind of follow my speed. The digital speed display seems to work normally. Any clues where to start looking?


Taken while cruising on the interstate at 62mph.