Need a pic of the 2 pipes to my egr valve
 

My mechanic accidentally pinched and broke 1 of the pipes that come off the egr valve in my 96 benz 280 (it looked like a pasta noodle). He remedied it by placing a hose laying around in his shop. (This happened while replacing my spark plugs). Instead of looking which one broke ( i called a MB local dealer ). The 1 that leads to the intake manifold is $188.00. The 1 that leads to the exhaust manifold is $18.00. My mechanic suggested to change both since both are probably brittle as hell by now. Will this be better? Check engine comes on intermittently, sorry i forgot to get the code. But it had something to do with the egr vacuum. Forgive my cluelessness, i'm not a car guy. Thanks for all your help.
Tito

Your mechanic should replace the pipe he broke at his expense ... at least that would be my approach.

the code is P0400 per OBD 2

I disabled the EGR on mine, and haven't looked back. :D

Your mechanic has a subscription to WIS, right?

Have him call up the picture.