I finally had a chance to hook a vac up to my EGR valve. It makes a pop when vac is applied and a good audible thunk when vac is released. So it should be OK. With the car running, applying vac to the EGR produces no change in the idle at all so I will plan to snake a cable through there and clean it out.

My concern is, what will happen to all of the debris that gets worked loose during cleaning? It would be best that these 'crumbs' did not get sucked into the engine right? I have some small attachments for the shop vac that could be used to try and pull the debris back out the bottom of the tube. Could the suction from the shop vac cause any problems?

Thanks,

Tim Benner
1995 E320 Wagon
1967 Triumph Spitfire
1997 Volvo 850 Wagon
2003 Montero Sport