Originally Posted by dl2000

Mat, you're in luck! I just cleaned it and boy was there alot of shit in there!

I had the same problem code P401, insuff flow. I bought the acura manual and studied it word for word.

I didn't take any pics but I know exactly what step you're at. So, you disconnected everything....fuel rails, egr, egr pipe near firewall, throttle body, etc.

Now you probably unbolted the 8 bolts that holds the top intake manifold to the rest of the manifold and that didn't budge right???? I did the same thing and pound the hell out of it and that didn't do. Well stop before you break something, it will not come off. There are more bolts from the bottom of the intake manifold, which you can't get to, therefore, you'll have to remove the whole unit.

Here's how to do it! Unbolt the 4 bolts that hold the water pipe on top front of the intake mainfold-- that is the key! Also, make sure your egr pipe is disconnectd. Then give the intake manifold a hard jiggle, then presto, it should slide up and off. You'll be removing the whole unit.

Once removed, give that baby a kiss and hug. Then you can get to the bolts below the intake manifold. Important.---The bolt underneath are of differnt lengths -- mark them with tape. You can take the whole manifold apart and clean the hell out of it with cleaner.....get 4 cans of throttle body cleaner. You'll see the the little hole from the egr pipe to the intake manifold completey clogged, clean everything you see.

Your gasket will most likely need to be replaced. I replaced both upper and lower instake gaskets, egr plate gasket, egr pipe gasket on both ends, egr gasket. Also, the water pipe has a o-ring on the collar -- replaced that too.

After all that and 6 hrs later, I put it back together and my car gets much better gas mileage and best of all ...no MIL light.


Good Luck. If you have additional questions, let me know. I'd give better details but I'm at work on company time.

Cheers.

Originally Posted by dl2000

Mat,

I know what you mean with the weather. I'm in Portland, OR and its tough working on the car when it frozen. Cleaning the egr took me a total of a month to do....I had to search this site and saw DIY for the 2.5 tl but no 3.2 and its completely different. Broke down and bought the acura manual and that was a necessity...get one.

I had to have 3 different tries cleaning the manifold. First time, ran out of time, had no manual, didn't have the right tools, had to put it all back together and get the things I need. 2nd time, I got to where you where and can't budge the intake manifold. I had the tools, time, manual but was too stupid to look at the diagram closer to figure out I only had 4 bolts to remove on the water pipe. , then I ran out of time cause its midnight and my wife needed the car the next day. Didn't finish puttin back together until 3 am. I was ready to take it to the shop but gave it one last try. If you take it to the stealership or shop they will charge you at least 4-5 hundred for this. I looked at the manual one last time and found it.

Okay enough rambling...to answer your question. No just taking the egr, egr lower body, and egr pipe will not do. I did that, MIL still came on. I thought maybe cleaning this out will help and I even took a bottle brush into the intake manifold to see if that helps....no way. I found out when I took the manifold off, the gunk that is past the egr pipe in the manifold is much deeper and in 2 chambers. IT WAS CAKED WITH GUNK SO BAD THAT A BRUSH WOULD NOT DO, I HAD TO SCRAPE IT OFF WITH A SCREWDRIVER. Nothing will be able to clean it out except to remove the manifold. Trust me. You are not far from the end result. 4 screws and that's it.

Good luck.

Hey, if you have a FAX machine, I can send you the pages that you'll need from my manual. Highlited and all.