P2440 Secondary Air Injection System Switching Valve Stuck on 2.7L 2TRFE (Fixed)

Couple weeks ago I noticed my engine had what sounded like a mild exhaust leak. Later that afternoon it threw a P2440 code saying "Secondary Air Injection System Switching Valve Stuck". I have a 2010 with the I4 2.7L engine. From my understanding the secondary air system blows cool air into the exhaust of a cold engine to increase the effectiveness of the catalytic converter during cold starts. So I deduced that the valve was probably stuck open and blowing exhaust into my air pump.



First thing I did was locate the part and tried spraying carb cleaner into it through the rubber air hose and vacuum line, to no avail.



I discovered there is a newer and an older style part (25710-75015) and that I had the older style. In many suppliers the parts seem interchangeable, but the newer style seems much more common. If you have the older or newer style you'll need longer or shorter studs to bolt them on. I ordered the newer one, but it would require two new longer studs (90126-08031). I really didn't want to remove the studs for the air pipe from the exhaust manifold because I've never had much luck removing bolts from the exhaust lol, and I had to remove the old studs into the block anyway. The studs for the valve itself are in the side of the engine head, but close to the exhaust. Another issue is to remove the metal air pipe you have to remove the heat shield for the exhaust, and I'd rather not. So the plan was to remove the 4 nuts from the valve, then the 4 studs. Two from the valve to hold the air pipe and two holding the valve to the engine. Then slide the valve out. First the nuts. They're 12mm (4th is behind the valve):



Then the studs. The old studs came out with a E-torx E8



After that save the metal gasket between the valve and air pipe and slide the valve out. The newer style is noticeably different, but they're the exact same width. Old vs new:



Then slide the new valve in. The new longer studs for whatever reason are an E-Torx E7. The studs for the air pipe to the valve are still E8. Don't forget the gasket and replace the nuts.


Then replace the intake air hose and secondary air hose.


Then cleared the codes. The whole thing took maybe half an hour to 45min
It seems like you can disassemble the valve with torx bolts, but they're on the underside of the old style. I'll have to try with the old part and see what I find. I'll update if I do. The new style has the bolts on top.

Parts I ordered:
Air Switching Valve: Part Number: 25710-75015
Longer Studs 2x: Part Number: 90126-08031
Couple nuts (but didn't really need them): Part Number: 90179-08101
Shorter Studs (didn't need them): Part Number: 90126-08052

These shorter studs were identical to the studs I pulled out holding the old style holding the old style valve to the engine.

I also opened up my air pump. Allegedly there's supposed to be a foam filter inside and they have a tendency to get shredded, sucked through the pump into the valve, and melt from the exhaust heat. There was no filter inside, but cleaned out some foam residue. So I'm going to assume it ended up eaten by my air pump and burned in exhaust. I've seen people put 1" universal filters on there to prevent that from happening. It's not really that dusty here so not sure if it's worth it, but I might consider it someday.

 

Well done.