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tried to get my car smogger
failed
the guy said my egr was probably bad. he told me to hook a vacuum pump up to it and see if it kills the motor, i did and it did absolutely nothing. the only noticeable difference was the fact that i could hear the exhaust more clearly from the engine bay. i know nothing about egr. is it time to buy a new one, can i clean this one? is this how our egrs work? any help would be greatly appreciated. thank you

Rather than just going by what he said, do you have your check engine light on at any time? If so, I would check them. If it is your EGR valve in any way, you should have a code for it.

usually a nice big fresh new cat will do the trick, oxygen sensors might need replacing.

how much higher did it read then the limit?

I had no problems with no EGR here, but Cali may have different limits than Ontario

well egr is just one extra step to being more environmentally friendly, lots of cars dont have egr right from the factory, the cat takes care of it all.

Make sure your car is running good
That it has a tune up and that the fuel canister doesnt have a broken hose.

On the Mazda Mx3 manual (also on MX-3.com) it shows a way you can test the EGR.
If you want, hit up a salavage yard and get one from there.

The EGR works by re-circulating some of the exhaust back into the intake to lower tempratures and make your car more smog friendly. It located behind the Intake Manifold. Its connected to the rear-exhaust header.

To take it out, I'd recommend to take out the rear headers and that can be a pain.

It wont be a bad idea to replace O2 sensors...
really, how much mileage does your car have is the real question
Any CEL?
Have you pulled any codes?


Also, I have heard of people putting Acetone in there gas tank to cheat emissions. Supposebly, it burns cleaner.
I might try that out soon
Do some searching on MX-3.com for that.