Dave 2015 Eco
New Member
- Jun 22, 2020
- 2
- 2
- Truck Year
- 2015
I have a 2015 Eco. I bought it new in early 2016. At 66,000 kilometers ( in January 2018) I took it to the dealer beacause the truck went into limp mode. I orginally thought the issue was with the transmission but found out later that it with the EGR cooler was plugged. The delaer wanted $4762.56 (CDN) to replace the cooler. Argued with FCA and they said it was not underwarranty. I had them clear the codes and took it home.
Since the EGR cooler was stainless steel and the exhaust pipe leading back to engine was 316 Stainless and being a chemist I decided to clean the unit myself. The total cost was around $200.00 CDN to clean it myself.
The first time it took about 8-10 hours to remove and replace the cooler plus cleaning time. I have done this twice now first time at 66 th Kilometers and again at 104 th Kilometers as a precuationary measure.
Last month I had it replaced due to the recall. But I plan to clean it again at 180,000 kilometers and I know for sure that the same thing will happen again as those fins will get carboned up.
The cleaning proceedure I used was the following.
1) Removed the unit completely aluminum frame attached
2) Manually rinsed out the EGR cooler with a garden hose to get rid of what I could
3) Place the whole unit into a 5 gallon bucket minus the valve and electronics ( I cleaned those separately)
4) Filled the bucket with warm waterjust up to the top of the stainless steel EGR cooler open end
5) used Draino crystals on the top of the fins and allowed the clear to soak in for 15-20 minutes.(KOH pellets) (Read the MSDS sheet for caustic and make sure that if you are not quaslified to do this get some that is and do this outside in well ventilated area, Not responsible if something goes wrong on this)
6) The caustic removes the carbon and will virtually clean the cooler to almost new conditions, rinse off slow flow of water to avoid splashing with full gear
I have used this twice now to clean the cooler successfully with no issues.
Since the EGR cooler was stainless steel and the exhaust pipe leading back to engine was 316 Stainless and being a chemist I decided to clean the unit myself. The total cost was around $200.00 CDN to clean it myself.
The first time it took about 8-10 hours to remove and replace the cooler plus cleaning time. I have done this twice now first time at 66 th Kilometers and again at 104 th Kilometers as a precuationary measure.
Last month I had it replaced due to the recall. But I plan to clean it again at 180,000 kilometers and I know for sure that the same thing will happen again as those fins will get carboned up.
The cleaning proceedure I used was the following.
1) Removed the unit completely aluminum frame attached
2) Manually rinsed out the EGR cooler with a garden hose to get rid of what I could
3) Place the whole unit into a 5 gallon bucket minus the valve and electronics ( I cleaned those separately)
4) Filled the bucket with warm waterjust up to the top of the stainless steel EGR cooler open end
5) used Draino crystals on the top of the fins and allowed the clear to soak in for 15-20 minutes.(KOH pellets) (Read the MSDS sheet for caustic and make sure that if you are not quaslified to do this get some that is and do this outside in well ventilated area, Not responsible if something goes wrong on this)
6) The caustic removes the carbon and will virtually clean the cooler to almost new conditions, rinse off slow flow of water to avoid splashing with full gear
I have used this twice now to clean the cooler successfully with no issues.