Removing the EGR guide tube can be difficult and complicated, so it's always a good idea to find an easier way to remove the buildup.

There is an EGR temperature sensor that screws into the guide tube, so I'm thinking that you can get some of the gunk out by simply unscrewing the EGR temp sensor and scraping out some of the soot that way.

I was also hoping to get a vacuum cleaner and hook it up to the hole where the sensor goes in and getting a small hose and sucking it out.

 

If it was that easy, that would be common knowledge, and all of us would do that.

Removing the sensor does not give you much access to the semi-solid carbon which is in the egr part the sensor lives in, nor inside the tube which looks like a door handle.

I have cleaned our both of these. I used a metal bristle brush and solvent. Like carb cleaner or kerosene.

 

+1

I usually soak EGR components in a gallon bucket of carb cleaner to completely dissolve the carbon buildup. It takes a wire brush that is like a pipe cleaner to work the carbon buildup loose. On the last 4th gen EGR system cleanup, the port from the EGR pipe to the UIM was clogged and completely closed. So I had to chisel out a hole in the UIM EGP port to work in some carb cleaner to start that cleanup.

 

None ...

 

If carb cleaner doesn't work, use Easy Off oven cleaner. It dissolves the carbon. You can get cans of it at the dollar store.