Rep Power: 0

I just bought an Acura EL 1.7 2003 automatic transmission and has the engine light with code P0401 which is for EGR insufficient flow. This is my first automatic vehicle, and also the first car with cruise control so not very familiar with the behavior. It literally struggles going uphill and has to downshift a lot. For example, I was on a highway at 90 KMPH and reached a slight uphill section. It downshifted to third and was struggling to reach 90. Next time I used cruise control to see how it keeps up the speed and it had to downshift to 2nd with the RPM hovering at 4500 and was able to stay at 90. Other than this, the car idles and runs great and on straight roads, the acceleration appears fine. Is this normal behavior for EL with 4-speed transmission? If not, can this be related to P0401?
Thanks

 
Rep Power: 366

solve the code first

 
Rep Power: 222

EGR passages are probably clogged, intake manifold has to come off to clean. Should probably take the valve off and clean there as well. Make sure you use the correct intake gasket when reassembling

 
Rep Power: 133

Have not had the EGR problem but take Colin42's advice as it sounds like the EGR system needs cleaning of carbon especially with that code and symptoms.

I have the same exact vehicle still in the family, if you need to know anything else about them...

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks. I cleaned the valve itself by taking it off and cleaning it with carb cleaner and it removed a lot of gunk. I didn't clean the ports underneath the valve as I wasn't sure if I can spray in them. I'll see a couple videos on how to clean the EGR passage on this vehicle and see if that fixes it.

 
Rep Power: 133

Yes you need to clean the EGR ports as well. I had an Odyssey van that needed the EGR valve replaced (under warranty) and the ports cleaned to solve this issue.

 
Rep Power: 0

Alright, I just talked to my mechanic and he took a test drive, even took the car on uphill parts of the highway and he managed to do really well. In fact he was really impressed with cars performance. Looks like it is just my driving style which I need to change. I have always used manual and this is my first automatic. Moreover, had such motorcycles but never had a car which 'liked' high RPMs like this one and I tried to keep the RPMs way below the half mark in the tacho. So, in the EL too, I was always within maximum 1.5-2k without lugging the engine and while approaching an uphill section and the vehicle would struggle. Strange though but the car won't downshift that easily to stay at that speed and even pressing gas pedal a little more won't do much at this point.
I again tried to drive the car on highway on the uphill sections and I managed better than before. However, have a questions:
- After flooring the pedal and downshifting, since the vehicle is still on the same uphill section, do I keep pressing the gas pedal that much until vehicle has reached needed speed or release it a little after downshifting? This automatic thing is confusing me :|

Thanks