Hello all, I need some help please. My service Engine light came on and I went to the local shop to have it scanned. They told me that the read out was “insufficient EGR flow”. The truck is running great. The idle is smooth and everything seems OK. Because of this, they reset the code and sent me on my way. They also said that it was a $300+ part and if it doesn’t come back on then it will be fine. Well needless to say it came back on within 30 miles. So here is my question, can a home mechanic fix this for less than the $300. If so how and where is the part located. I almost forgot some tech info. I have a 97 f-150, 4x4, 4.6 auto with 150,000 miles. Thanks in advance for all the help.

 

this is very common on high mileage 4.6's

300 is very steep. I believe the part (EGR valve) is around $45.00 and only takes about ten min to replace!

However you might not need to replace the EGR valve. Do a search on here for clogged egr tubes. There are two little tubes that fill with carbon on the 4.6 that you can easily clean yourself. you can also clean the egr valve very easily.

good luck.

 

Yup,

hcmq is correct. I had it a couple of weeks ago. I think the code was P0401. Do a search on P0401 or EGR or DFPE. You should find a ton of posts about it. One of them somewhere even has the instructions with pictures for cleaning the EGR ports. The most likely problem is either the EGR ports being clogged and/or a failed DPFE sensor. In my case it was both. There is some kind of TSB out on the DPFE sensors where the warranty was extended for 2 years/24,000 miles or something like that also. Start searching!

 

$300 is a total ripoff.

 

I had the same code but on a 4.2L and still had the code after changing the egr valve and sensor. First Check to see if your egr valve is working - with engine running apply vacuum to the egr valve. rpms should drop. If not your egr may be stuck. With the engine off if you suck on a hose connected to the egr valve you should be able to open the valve and hear the slight popping sound. In my case the vavle worked properly.

To check the selenoid working properly when at about 2000 rpms with a warm engine you should pull vacuum enough to hold a quarter size pieze of paper on the hose. Just check it at the egr vavle connection. If you don't have vacuum you either have a vacuum line cracked or disconnected or the selenoid is bad.

Search through the posts, I believe there is one where you can test the dpfe sensor. The DPFE sensor measures the pressure across an orifice in the tube running from the exhaust manifold.

 

Thanks to all for the response. I will try the code search. I tried the search before I posted but it would not work with EGR because they needed 4 letters?? Anyway I will search and give it a try this weekend. Thanks again.

 

Within 500 miles of purchasing both our 4.6L's the "check engine" light went on. It turned out to be faulty EGR valves and they were replaced by warrenty. The EGR valve itself isn't that expensive, maybe $40-something.

G. Luck