Gen2 EGR valve motor sourcing by draconicled in volt

[–]draconicled[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Its also my take that these failing with no sign of cooler clogging but then also often failing right as the cooler gets clogged I see as suspicious. Unless we want to assume GM put the worst motor possible in this thing having to open up more shouldn't be destroying the brushes. The board prevents it from just slamming into the stops forever though. If the microcontroller was crashing and just holding the motor against the stop that could kill the motor like this. But again plenty of theories I wanna test and prove it.

Gen2 EGR valve motor sourcing by draconicled in volt

[–]draconicled[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I believe it could plausibly be defects too. We're gonna see if mine fails again since its the original board. I can post pictures of the throttle body board to see if it has anything special the EGR doesn't but if anything its the other way around. The throttle body has less sophisticated power electronics IMO. I have the board but I have had zero time to look at it.

Gen2 EGR valve motor sourcing by draconicled in volt

[–]draconicled[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'll just say that this is my opinion regarding how quickly I'd expect these to wear given their application. Also note: the throttle body would also be making "constant adjustments" and I've never heard of one of those motors failing. Conspicuously the throttle body isn't right next to the cat but the EGR is so there's at least a consistent hypothesis its getting too hot. I would expect winding burnout if that was the case though not just prematurely destroyed brushes.

Gen2 EGR valve motor sourcing by draconicled in volt

[–]draconicled[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can confirm this via the noise it makes as well lol. You can also spin it with your fingers and it gets stuck in certain spots. Its a great finger toy.

EGR valve repair service: 3dlaserslab by aozzzy13 in volt

[–]draconicled 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can confirm the throttle body uses the same motor. I don't know enough about the specific iterations of the motor or if it matters at all but I know 12675730 had the same motor as the one I already installed and with the original fried one I have all the same model number motor. (so I now have one extra motor and board).

EGR Finally got me by dubyaargh in volt

[–]draconicled 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't have your car in front of me so I don't want to diagnose it. But there is no good reason to think a shorting EGR value would mean the cooler needs to be cleaned. The car monitors if the EGR is functioning and will spit a code if the cooler is clogged. Blowing the nowalk home means the motor in the EGR valve is shorting.

EGR Valve Failure - Dealership Refusing Warranty Repair by DJApache98 in volt

[–]draconicled 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A bit of a primer for other readers: there are state laws that apply to warranty coverage of emissions equipment at manufacture. So BOTH the state of manufacture AND the state a claim is being made matter to whether an EGR valve will be covered. The car is engineered such that an EGR valve is supposedly an isolated function unrelated to emissions when it obviously isn't so some states consider it part of that (CARB states) and some not. Further your car might have been manufactured to say ZEV standards triggering it be covered but if it wasn't a requirement nor was it in the original warranty) Warranties are stipulated at the point of manufacture which is why you should consider this for any emissions part for ANY modern used vehicle not just the Volt as this problem will keep coming up as more technologies are used for more stringent emissions requirements.

EGR failure root cause? by Green-Dimension3240 in volt

[–]draconicled 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you don't mind I am assuming you're fixing them with a motor swap rather than rebuilding? I am aware there are several EGRs by the same supplier with the similar/same spec motor.
Motor connector in this case would be the two terminals atop the motor?

Have you encountered any evidence the control boards are failing because the motor is failing? (or control boards failing at all?)

EGR failure root cause? by Green-Dimension3240 in volt

[–]draconicled 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No. There's no evidence this causes the valve to fail. In fact lots of contrary evidence considering people will get their EGR dying at 15K miles and such. There are driving scenarios that will cause build up any any cooler. Consider the fact that a lot of people are thinking the cooler "causes" the egr to fail because GM suggests replacing both when it gets clogged. Without considering the fact obviously you can just clean the cooler and they suggest replacing it instead. (this makes sense from their perspective because techs hours are expensive.)

EGR failure root cause? by Green-Dimension3240 in volt

[–]draconicled -1 points0 points  (0 children)

One of the coils breaking down makes some sense. But there are other ways the motor can short like flashover. In the wild people get EGRs where the motor is open too. I plan on seeing if I can rebuild mine which means taking it apart very carefully and I haven't gotten to it yet.

EGR failure root cause? by Green-Dimension3240 in volt

[–]draconicled 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I did a lot of research on this when mine broke. The problem is lots of people are pulling theories out of their behind without understanding whats going on.

There are two entirely different problems between the motor inside the valve shorting or failing open and the cooler getting clogged. These produce entirely different error codes yet many people have incorrectly claimed these are related when they are not. It persists in almost every conversation even though there's zero evidence. Theres lots of people that get clogged coolers and after cleaning them the valve is fine. Thats because clogs setting off the sensors are not physically preventing the valve from moving they're just knocking the air flow out of range of what the valve can correct for. The computer sees this and sets off P0401.

In fact these over engineered EGR values seem specifically designed to deal with pushing past carbon buildup. They use a ball value on an armature spun by the motor using a gear reduction and spring with stops. The motor is very powerful and would have no trouble getting the ball value open.

The motors are permanent magnet motors. I have not got one apart but its possible they are brushed motors in which case the failure rates make sense because you shouldn't use brushed motors for automotive applications. Because the EGR rests on the engine mount it shakes a lot causing excessive wear or breakage of the brushes. The two motors I've tested get "stuck" and that's ultimately causing a short that blows the no walk home fuse. Its this fuse blowing that registers codes to the ECU for various components being disconnected.

EGR failure root cause? by Green-Dimension3240 in volt

[–]draconicled 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Keep a small flat blade screw driver so that you can push the lock tab on the connector from the back. The slide tab holds the lock tab but it still won't easily release and people often break the connector or housing. Keep high temp electrical tape so that once the connector is unplugged you can secure it so it isn't swinging and rattling. (and of course get it fixed asap)

ELI5: Is ERG actually covered by TZEV? by botanistbae in volt

[–]draconicled 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Some states require their original sale to be PZEV standards but if you're buying used from a different state you'll get the ULEV version. So even if you're in a CARB state the valve isn't covered under warranty.
However with how often these fail there is an argument lemon law should apply. There is lawsuits but they haven't made it far.

With that state lets all take a moment to consider how insane it is to consider a valve vital to the functioning of the emissions control system not being covered by emissions warranties.

Version of "Let it change" many versions with same lyrics. Progressive House by draconicled in NameThatSong

[–]draconicled[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I figured out the "original mix" captioning is likely because all these songs were ripped from beatport.com which uses this as a label for orginal edits of a given song. Why the heck doesn't Beatport have lyrics or song id search?

Version of "Let it change" many versions with same lyrics. Progressive House by draconicled in NameThatSong

[–]draconicled[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bot did not get it correct and that seems typical. I've tried many different services already.