Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting EGR Tube

Alright, EGR tube blew off tonight.. CEL came on, sound of air rushin in the engine compartment only when the car is accelerating. Small loss of horsepower/acceleration. Otherwise, car runs fine. Same problem happened to me in February, took the car to Don Jenkins Carolina Ford in NC, they repaired the EGR tube, replaced an intake gasket and the HEGO sensor. About 2 days after that the tube blew off again, this time they replaced the tube at no charge. Is there perhaps any reason why this has happened again and if so what would you recommend me doing? The initial repairs on it costed me $781.22 This is the second repair i've done on the car, repairs in all have totaled about $1500. I've only had the car for a year and a couple of months. and I only paid $3500 for it. Car has 116,000 miles on it

Get a new mechanic, you are being ripped off!

Either you have a clogged CAT, or the exhaust is crushed.
These are the only reasons for excessive backpressure.
Replacing a pre-CAT is expensive, you can gut them yourself but a shop cannot. The main CAT is relativly cheap and will suffice for emissions most of the time.

Oddly enough my inspection was done last month, not even that actually and the car passed w/o any problems. I know i'm being ripped off and repair costs are just about to surpass the value of the car.

Your precats are likely falling apart & clogging the main cat. The purpose of the pre-cats is to scrub exhaust emssions for the few minutes when the engine is cold. After that, your main cat does the job just fine by itself. Many opt to 'gut' their pre-cats rather than spend huge amounts of money to replace them. New precats are a dealer only item & very expensive - on the order of $1500 installed, usually more.

ALTERNATIVE 1:
If you're not comfortable turning a wrench, you can pick up a set of "mytery modded" pre-cats from buckshotmotorsports.com for $80 after core charges, and replace yours - labor cost $200 - $300. Once done, have a new high-flow cat installed at a local muffler shop - $80 parts, $50 labor.

ALTERNATIVE 2:
Call on the happy CEGers in your area to come & mystery mod your pre-cats for you. Some will do the job for the cost of a case of beer. Then all you'll have left to do is visit that muffler shop & have the main cat replaced.

Jim R