Hello and good day. I am interested in removing my EGR valve and cleaning it, and the garb that accumulates in the housing. I do not have an error code yet, but I am thinking of doing before it gets really bad. So what is the best way of cleaning it? I was thinking perhaps an ultrasonic cleaner may be the best way of doing that. If so, should I just put the lower dirty portion of the valve in the solution? don't want to damage the electronic portion of the valve.
Thank you, E350cruiser

 

I did it during short block replacement, when old EGR had 180k miles on it. It did have lot of build up on the pipe elbow, but no codes.
I simply scraped the pipe. Don't recall plastic EGR being serviceable, at least I did not touch it.
I did buy ultrasonic generator in the mean time, but did not build the pan for it yet. When it can be useful, bear in mind that perfect cleaning will be perfect only for very limited number of miles and the process of clogging starts right away.
As much as it looks bad, it doesn't seem to affect the engine performance too much.
I had similar situation on W124 where at 270k miles the intake had like 25% clog from ventilation fumes.
I pressure-washed it at the time, but could not tell if engine run better.

 

Just keep in mind that the complete intake manifold will still have the same soot accumulation even if you clean EGR.

Easiest is over the counter oven cleaner. Be mindful that oven cleaner is not good for aluminum if soaked for a long period of time. Lightly scrape with flat screw driver and then use various brushes.

 

I don't want to use oven cleaner on the aluminum, that could be really bad. I was thinking if I bought a benchtop ultrasonic cleaner I could suspend the egr in a way so that the lower portion would be in the liquid, that being something like warm water and simple green mixture. the upper half of the valve out of the solution so as not to get liquid inside.
Yes I could use brakeclean or gumout and a brush too, but I was thinking the ultrasonic might be the way to go.