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Worse mpg after cleaning EGR valve?


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Hi i've just bought a 59 reg is220d with 123k miles.

When I bought it, it was listed as having an egr issue and it went into limp mode around 5-6 times on the 130 mile drive home requiring me to pull over and restart the car every time. During this journey the car averaged 39mpg according to the computer. and occasionally had white smoke out of the exhaust, as well as a strong diesel smell out of the exhaust.

The first thing I have done since then was cleaning out the egr valve with 2 cans of carb cleaner and this seems to have resolved any warning lights, white smoke, diesel smell and complete loss of power. However during my 70 mile trip commutes over the last 2 days i was only able to average 31mpg. This is after averaging 30mpg around town on the weekend. 

I was expecting for the mpg to improve and not decrease based on what I had read. 

I have also ordered some maf sensor cleaner which should be coming later this week, and taking off the manifold to clean it out is unfortunately something I wouldn't be able to do, despite the well written guide on it I have found here on the forum. If this is likely the issue then I would have to get a mechanic to do it.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what the issue could be, or what I should look to do next to try and resolve the poor mpg? When I filled up the tank I did use esso supreme and added some DPF cleaner as well.

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53 minutes ago, olliesgrandad said:

The car hasn't been sold to you with a head gasket issue has it? 

I was only advised that the egr valve was clogged and i've cleaned it out. How would i check?

There hasn't been any over heating or running issues since ive cleaned out the egr valve this week and iver been driving 35 miles each way to work and back on the motorway.

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6 hours ago, messi said:

I take it that you didn't do any research before buying the most unreliable car lexus made? 

Very helpful response :rolleyes1:

Also, considering the high level of reliability of Lexus cars, being the most unreliable doesn't necessarily make it a very problematic one.  For example, my old IS is still going strong at 160k miles after 4 years of ownership (myself and my friend) and over 50k miles covered.

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I get what you mean, but lexus made one diesal, and that's it, and it is the most unreliable lexus made, okay you get issues with all diesals, but this car is bad, you think the egr is your only issue? Wait till the headgasket goes

If you want to help the guy out, you should tell him the truth about the is220d. That's what I'm doing 

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It is by no means certain that the head gasket will fail.  You have to remember that while on forums we hear about a lot of failures, there are many more people out there who are happily motoring away.  I have not been on a single car forum that doesn't list common faults on their cars, but that doesn't mean that they all suffer from it.

The main issues with is220d's are EGR and DPF related, and these problems are by no means limited to Lexus. 

Oh, and telling someone that they should have done their research and telling them the 'truth' about their car after they have bought it isn't very helpful.

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I had a 57 reg avensis with the 2.2 diesel ( the T180 version) after about 4 years of faultless use it went into limp mode, took it to Toyota and I had a new (rebuilt) engine fitted even though it was outside the three year warranty. The reason they did it was because they said there was a design fault in that engine, I seem to remember it was related to the piston crown design and one other issue. 59 plate Lexus probably has the same engine design problem, they did say it wasn’t a given that it would fail but some would

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Good to see  members sorting out their differences amicably and apologising too.Life is too short to bear unnecessary grudges etc etc,well done 👍👍👍

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I only paid £1100 for the car, it was more of an extended test drive as i'm a bit tired of driving a straight piped Civic type R 70 miles a day. After a year its taken the fun out of driving it.

I'm looking for either a GS430 for an LPG conversion or an old ISF (I don't know if this can be run on LPG) since I have found this is220d to be more comfortable than the CLS I had a few years ago, but figured this outbreak would keep people inside and cause car prices to go down so theres no point in in spending a lot of money (for me) on a car if I wasn't sure I would enjoy commuting in it.

Solved the issue, There was a fuel leak as there was a pipe by the fuel filter not fitted properly and the garage that i took it to get serviced at noticed it coming down the passenger side shock absorber and on the rear axle.

I was aware of the other potential issues before I bought the car but figured for the price it was worth a punt.

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No issues with the dpf, I asked them about a delete and they the soot built up in it cleared out just fine so they told me it wasn't necessary.

Previous owner did a 2 mile round trip to work for 2 years so I'm pretty happy with the result. 43 mpg isn't the best but it will be better than my EP3 and 300zx on fuel for the next few months. 

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On 3/17/2020 at 2:14 PM, messi said:

I get what you mean, but lexus made one diesal, and that's it, and it is the most unreliable lexus made, okay you get issues with all diesals, but this car is bad, you think the egr is your only issue? Wait till the headgasket goes

If you want to help the guy out, you should tell him the truth about the is220d. That's what I'm doing 

Diesel* Just wanted to help you out 🙂

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