Troubleshooting Code 32

[shima]

Hi guys,

I got out in the garage tonight and took off my EGR valve to check whether it was having any issues. I made an album of photos here on CK5 so that I can ask some quick questions: https://ck5.com/forums/media/albums/code-32-troubleshooting.1273/

1. I found some coolant sitting in some grooves on my engine, and it's freaking me out a little bit. Anybody have an idea of how coolant could end up there?
2. When I took my air filter housing off, there was a little ring that felt like cloth beneath it. As shown in one of the pictures, a piece flaked off. The whole thing was pretty brittle. Is it okay to just keep running it as is or should I buy a replacement?
3. When I got my EGR valve off, I found that there was a plate between it and the intake manifold. I was surprised to see that because it wasn't in any of the videos that I've watched online. Do I need that thing? As you can see in the pictures, it is flaking apart too.
4. I'm gonna go ahead and clean my EGR valve, but does it look okay to you guys? It doesn't appear to be too bad from what I can tell.

Overall, my EGR seemed fine. It held a vacuum, and it was difficult to push in the diaphragm. I guess my next move is to check out the solenoid. Any tips or other things I should check out?

Thanks as always.

Drew

 

[frankin5]

Hose or thermostat housing for coolant. Should be just a gasket for EGR to manifold, looks like you have two at this time. That is a gasket to seal the air filter housing to TBI.

 

[thearborbarber]

Sounds like someone put a block off plate between the egr valve and intake. I've done that because the egr valve has failed and I'm too cheap to replace it. Most of the time a tbi's pcm won't set a code if an egr is plugged in regardless if it works or not.

 

[wheels87k5]

1. Coolant from the thermostat housing gasket is a big possibility, maybe a seepage from the hose at the neck of the housing. It wouldn't hurt to go ahead and replace the thermostat housing gasket and tighten the hose clamp if needed.

2. The piece of ring you speak of looks to be from the gasket beneath the air cleaner. It would definitely not hurt to replace it if you want a better chance of keeping very small particles out of the manifold. Inexpensive fix.

3. Yes, you need that gasket between the EGR and where it mounts. It will help to eliminate any vacuum issues and make a tighter seal.

4. The EGR actually looks pretty clean. If you can pick off any of the black soot on or around the unit, or any happens to just fall out of the EGR, clean it out or replace it. If it holds a good vacuum you should be good to go.

The ECM will only check the EGR when going over 50 mph so you shouldn't get a code 32 when driving slower. You can get the code 32 if the EGR is plugged up, a vacuum leak at the base of the EGR, a crack in the hose from the EGR to the EGR solenoid, also leaks from other hoses from the TBI itself, a bad EGR solenoid, the EGR not plugged in, if you remove the cats and put in mufflers only (the EGR likes to see some back pressure from the exhaust and when the cats are removed it creates a lot less). Simple things to take care of that will keep the code 32 from happening. (With the exception of the cats.....not hard to replace or put back on but time consuming.)

 

[dyeager535]

I had similar with coolant loss.

I couldn't get it to seal UNTIL I took the thermostat housing off, and using a piece of sandpaper on a hard surface, made sure the sealing surface was flat. No issue since then. You can try and RTV it up and all that, but it shouldn't *need* that.

Diagnosis for Code 32 "by the book" should be able to be found in the service manuals in the link in my signature.

Buddy just went through the EGR deal with his '90 Suburban, and after spending time looking at the GM parts manual, the previous owner(s) had installed the wrong one. Most everyone will highly recommend replacing an EGR valve with ONLY an AC Delco piece (if necessary, this is another part I wouldn't replace unless it's absolutely known to be bad), as the aftermarket combines many, many part numbers into one generic EGR which sometimes does not play well with the particular rig. There are 2.5 pages of EGR valve part numbers used from 1986-1991, so they aren't one size fits all, let alone the major difference between positive and negative backpressure valves.

Edit: BTW, he had a high idle RPM and the engine would never warm up. He used an IR temp gun to verify his gauge, for some reason, installing the proper EGR valve cured both the high idle and low engine temp. I have no idea how that is possible, without seeing it myself I can't absolutely verify what was going on, but every question I asked he answered while the problem was on-going. Changing the EGR valve directly correlated to the high idle reduction and engine temperature rising.