I believe what they're supposed to do is pop the control rod off the EGR
(the one that runs from the EGR over to the throttle) and manually move the
lever.  With the engine idling moving the lever slightly should drop RPMs as
exhaust gets introduced into the system and moving it all the way should
result in RPMs picking back up as the EGR closes at WOT.

Did you pass smog or is this "modified" notation resulting in a "fail?"
---------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Young                       '81 Vanagon
Lafayette, CA 94549         '82 Westfalia
---------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Hand" <khand@STANFORD.EDU>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 12:05 AM
Subject: Visual EGR on Smog Check?

> hey gang,
> i'd love some feedback on the following - in brief i think a mechanic
> may be trying to rip me off on a Smog Check and i want to be sure i'm
> on firm ground before i call his bluff.
>
> i've got an '81 Westy and a new engine was just put into her earlier
> this year by the folks at Blodget's in Southern CA. Needless to say I
> trust their work.  The vehicle passed emissions last year (different
> owner) and when I recently took her to a garage here in the Bay Area
> she passed everything with flying colors except this little section
> called 'Visual EGR'. The guy said it looked like it had been tampered
> with and marked it as 'MODIFIED' on the report.
>
> Now I'm no VW wizard (yet), but i can hold my own with a wrench and so
> i played around with the EGR this past weekend and everything seems
> fine. Its a little black, as though maybe it had been heated a bit
> during a welding process or something, but as far as I can tell it
> looks and works fine.
>
> I've searched for details about justification for failure on this part
> of the test but haven't found anything.
>
> Anybody have any thoughts, ideas, comments, recommendations?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> kph