1.9 MJet EGR Symptoms Lets talk 1.9 MJet EGR? Or should the 3 letter acronym be DSS... Diesel Soot Storage!?

Probably applies to all current JTD derived diesels.

Hoping to get ALL the symptoms in a single place to make it easy as pie for owners to get all the info they need to judge wether or not to remove / clean & re-fit? As opposed to a dodgy MAF or TPS for example?
To give the best chance of getting it right...

I've attached a couple of pics of mine below, there are others, but just so they are "here"!

Now what owners of the 1.9 JTD derived MJet want to know is how do they know for sure what the EGR clog=up signs are?... what different symptoms did we have?

Mine...
NO power up to 2,200 RPM then whooosha!
Black smoke over 3,000RPM.
Drop in economy by 5 - 6 MPG.
A brief showing of the EML & "Check Engine" message.
Heavy judder from the engine when seitched off.
Add your own symptoms.
Attached are my 2 pics... suffice it to say it was totally clogged up, easy to clean as per Aircooled doodlebug's guide, removing & re-fitting would always be a pain in the a$$ with my big hands & short fingers so I had a new EGR fitted, I now have a cleaned up example ready for use!

Be aware that there's 2 side venturi to clean out as well... easily missed at the opposite end from my 1st pic, I cleaned these out with a plastic cable tie... repeatedly until no soot came out by flushing & brushing!
Attached Thumbnails

After decoking my JTD EGR and inlet manifold twice in a few months I blanked off the engine side with a piece of stainless steel from an old kitchen sink; no problems now for over a year and much better mid range power and extra 2-4 mpg.....

A consideration with blocking off the EGR, besides the Eco bit, is a risk of higher engine temperatures as the EGR provides a cooling effect to the intake charge. Thats largely theoretical though...