Service engine soon?
 

Alright..here is my situation. Last week my starter died, and I had it replaced.

Shortly afterwards, the "Service engine soon" light came on. I took it back to the shop, they hooked their computer up, and it gave an "EGR Malfunction" code. The mechanic checked a few wires and crap - and said everything was OK (at no charge). He cleared the code, but soon afterwards, the light came on again.

Any ideas? It's annoying, but my car does not seem to be running differently..

What kind of car?

The most common cause for this that I have seen is a loose gas cap.

That was the first thing I checked.

1999 Nissan Sentra SE.

Buy a new one from Carmax.

So are we going to start a new subforum for auto repair advice? :p

Have Huggy fix it. I mean you seem to think he can fix any old piece of crap.

I think you know everything.

It sounds like the mechanic did not do a good check on it then. The Codes should tell you. I would suspect on Oxygen sensor, it is the next most common from my experience. Is it running "rich?" Has your gas milage dropped off?

I probably shouldn't have bought it from Rusty Eck. It's good for picking up 15 year old chicks at the mall, though.

A code for this is quite common. Probably just a coinsidense that it happened while in the shop. One of three things can cause it. Your Purge Cannister is back drafting into the engine causing high levels of carbon to build up in the intake which in turn will cause a faulty code to set with the EGR valve. The second is it's just a bad EGR that activated after the car was not run for a while. And the third possibility is faulty wiring going to the sensor or a bad sensor.

Your fuel door being open would likely cause a code to set with the oxygen sensor...not the EGR.

ROFL Nah, just had a lot of problems with cars over the years.

1) What the hell is an EGR Valve?
2) How much am I looking at to fix this?

The exhuast gas recirculation (EGR) system is an important part of the emissions controls in the nissan engine. This also has a large effect on the NOx emissions (my car recently failed emissions due to almost twice the limit of NOx ppm but passed the other parts). You can replace the part, but it's about $100 from the dealer and I've heard people having good results just cleaning it out so I figured I'd try that first. I was able to pass emissions easily after doing this cleaning; it made a huge difference my NOx levels.

If you put your fingers on the underside of the EGR valve beneath the disc part, you should be able to push up on the valve and feel it move. With the car running, you should feel the valve move up when you rev the engine. You can also pull off the upper vacuum line going into the EGR valve and you can feel the vacuum on it when you rev the engine if everything is working properly