Warning: My truck's EGR cooler decided to give up on a Tuesday morning.

It was a 2012 Duramax, and the failure dumped coolant right into the intake, making a huge mess and a lot of white smoke. I had to pull the whole unit, clean everything out, and replace the cooler with a new one from the parts store. Has anyone found a good way to test these before they fail completely?

2 comments

2 Comments

seth_green8510d ago

My 2011 Silverado 2500 did the EXACT same thing last spring. That white smoke cloud was so thick I thought I'd set the woods on fire. I ended up replacing the EGR cooler with a Dorman unit, but the cleanup took forever. I've heard you can pressure test the cooler off the truck, but by then you've already done all the work. Honestly, I just check for any sweet smell or coolant loss now and consider it a wear item.

gonzalez.anna9d ago

My old 2008 Duramax blew its EGR cooler at 140,000 miles and it looked just like that. The smoke was so bad a guy at the gas station came running over with a fire extinguisher. I did the pressure test after I pulled it and sure enough, it had a tiny crack. You're totally right, once it's out you might as well just swap it. I keep a close eye on my coolant level every other fill up now too.