EGR Exhaust Gas Return pipe intake gasket - How to

[TorqueHorse]

Have you spent hours of your life cutting your hand to shreds fumbling for dropped bolts and gaskets, all while melting in 100+ (F) heat? If you haven't, then hooray, and here is how to keep it that way while replacing your EGR intake gasket in less than 30 min.

What you'll need:
Intake side gasket (Ideally a new intake gasket, though you may be able to reuse your old one if no material transferred to the mating surfaces)
Exhaust side gasket (You should be able to clean-up the old metal exhaust side gasket, and spray it with some copper gasket spray before reassembly, but if not, a new one is A100E6494S)
10mm and 12mm sockets with extensions and torque wrench
Shop rags and some scraps of paper
Some sort of extension with a magnet
Light
Bonus: Borescope - makes it a lot easier to see when you are trying to get the bolts in and double check your work

Prep your area:
You probably had to do most of this to get your EGR pipe loose in the first place, but you are able to do this job without removing anything except the intake hose going to the throttle body. I do remove the coolant expansion tank anchor bolt and just move the tank out of the way (where the intake hose was). Unplug the air hoses going to the underside of the throttle body, the EGR valve, and the back of the throttle body, and unplug the MAT sensor back there too.
Clean the mating faces of the intake and exhaust manifolds, as well as the pipe portions.
Put a nice big shop rag or two down under the intake attachment area to create a nice nest to catch any fallen bolts or gaskets. It will also be a staging area for the intake gasket as we will see.

1-Prep_s.jpg

Starting:
Put your exhaust gasket back on and pop that side of the pipe into the exhaust manifold. You can start threading those bolts too, but don't get them too tight yet. The intake pipe side should now be in the generally right position relative to the intake manifold.
Use a scrap of paper in the socket to hold one of your bolts in place, and with the socket extension(s) you should be able to get it in one of the mounting holes and start threading it into the manifold.

2-bolt holder_s.jpg

I found the lower side/side closest to the firewall was the easier one to see/start with. Go ahead and do the same thing for the other bolt. Remember you are just getting these started, don't go too far, but also go far enough so they won't fall out. You are now able to check that the pipe is all lined up, but you can pull back on it so there is space between the intake manifold and the pipe mating face, without the pipe falling out of place.

3-start bolts_s.jpg

Get a feel for where that gap is between the manifold and the EGR valve face, because you will be doing some of the next part blind.

Installing the gasket:
Bolt #1
Now you are going to undo some of that great work you just did. Carefully unthread the lower side/side closest to the firewall bolt. I try to finish it by hand so you can catch it when it comes free, but if not, that is what the shop rags and your magnet are there for.
With the gasket oriented more up/down you will slide it from the bottom/side where you just took that bolt out (you can't drop it in from the top because the EGR diaphram blocks the top). Use the shop rags to hold it in place while you attempt to get that one bolt hole lined up. Borescope works great for seeing if you did it, but you can shove a phone camera in there too to see if you got the gasket bolt hole lined up with the egr bolt hole.

4-place gasket_s.jpg

With the holes lined up you can get the bolt (with the socket, paper, and extender again) started back in the hole. Again, get it started, but not super tight yet. Gently put some tension on the gasket to make sure it is being held by that one bolt.

5-secure one side_s.jpg

Bolt #2
By now you can probably see where this is going. Remove the other bolt (you caught it and didn't hear it clattering away into the transmission tunnel like a pachinko machine, right?!). Now with your left hand, you should be able to slide over the intake and down the back side and eventually find and feel an edge of the gasket. That one bolt is now a pivot point and by moving your finger up and down you'll rotate the gasket up into the correct position, while with your other hand you can use the extension, socket, paper, bolt to get that second bolt in through the EGR valve, gasket, and manifold.

6-rotate gasket_s.jpg

Again, just get the bolt started, then step back and review that everything is in place.
Make sure the gasket didn't go too far up (or down) when you rotated it!

7-double check you lined up the hole_s.jpg

If so, just loosen that bolt, and try again.

Finishing up:
When the gasket is finally in the right place, then you can tighten all your bolts.
29 Nm at the Exhaust side bolts
And the Manual doesn't have a call out for the Intake side bolts, but since it is going into aluminum and they are 10mm, I used 12 Nm and had no leaks. You can always tighten from there if it leaks.
Remove the shop rags, reattach all your hoses and sensor cables and double check you didn't pull a spark plug wire free in the process. Then put your coolant tank and intake hose back.
Start the car to confirm all good and no leaks.

[Fredjohn]

Nice work!
However, it would be better if this was saved in wikilec or repairs to avoid trawling threads to find it.