I can't seem to find where the EGR valve is to clean it and get the motor to run better I did a search but I came up empty on the location and how to clean it. or where the evap system is to check it because the gas cap code will not go away and they said it was the evap system

you can't miss the EGR valve! if you have a plastic cover over your engine, it should be located just to the right of the cover, all the way towards the firewall. it is cylindrical in shape, standing up, with a black top that has wires coming out of it. it is held in place by two bolts (which are probably rusty because of the high temperature in that area) at its base which is shaped like a elongated diamond.

you can find a photo of it here: http://www.rockauto.com/ref/Airtex/D...tml?4F1054.jpg

Good luck with cleaning it. It seems that squirting stuff up into it will work for a couple of months, but that'* about all the luck I had. This last time I dremelled the casing off of it, pulled it all apart, cleaned the crap out of it and zip tied it back together. It definately made a difference at idle and has lasted a few months now, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.

yuck. sounds like he'* better off just splurging $145 for a new EGR and calling it a day.

thats what i did. one day the car threw a EGR code at me.. so the next day i just ordered it. it probably just would have gotten worse over time anyway.

i dunno, the EGR seemed like a pretty beefy piece of metal -- not sure if i'd have the patience to cut the thing open... and then if the surgery fails, i'd be EGRless for a few days waiting on a replacement. i'm not sure that the car would be happy about that.

when my EGR was throwing codes, i just took it off, soaked it in intake cleaner and moved the pintle back and forth a whole bunch and periodically rinsed it more with the cleaner, i havent had a code come up in 2 years (30k miles) now.

I would certainly take the 10 min to try to clean it before i spent 150 on a new one

I likewise have cleaned them with good luck. One of the best was removed when the engine was up to temp. This required some thick gloves due to the heat of the EGR.. the TB cleaner actually boiled inside and cleaned it all very well.

Danger factor is higher than a cold cleaning.

I cleaned mine and it lasted about 2 months and replaced it with a new one which lasted about 8 months. I resigned myself to the possibility of having to buy one anyway so I figured what the heck. The outside metal sleeve is spot glued on, once you get that off, the rest comes apart fairly straight forward, then it'* mostly just a spring and some collars made out of some weird crumbly material. If you end up buying a new one, it won't hurt to play around with the other, I just put the cart before the horse, as they say.