thanks for all your inputs:lightning:

how to make friends and influence people! Regarding your OP you are asking questions that not everyone may feel competent to comment on so not every post is going to get an answer. Only experience of EGR valaves I have is on BMW diesel engings and on them they are very prone to clogging up with tarry soot, a regular clean out is the only answer and all it seems to do is reduce the amount of smoke visible under acceleration, so not sure what problems you are expecting. Welcome to the forum BTW HTH Alan

sledgehammer73, I know that many people in other diesel cars have deliberately blocked the EGR valve from returning exhaust fumes to the engine in order to keep their engines clean, and they passed emision control. Because that's what it does really, it recirculates exhaust fumes which contain remnants of unburned fuel to reburn them, and by that reduces the amount of released NOx in to the atmosphere, so it's a green thingy. I don't know how a Volvo's EURO3 or EURO4 2.0D engine/ECU would react to such a maneuver of dismissing it, but i surely wouldn't choose a petrol over a diesel just out of fear of a faulty EGR valve. If you feel that a 40-44mpg consumption is good enough then my advise would be to buy the 2.0D diesel. :thumbs_up: