All EGRs do is get gunged up. I've had no problem with mine because it's controlled by software and I had it mapped out, so it's in effect not being used, I will remove it at some point. when it got mapped out it was quite messy. thankfully it's cleared itself up now since it's been removed from the combustion cycle as i said.
7/10 times if your car has poor power, bad throttle response, poor fuel economy, especially if it's a diesel, it'll be because of the EGR. EGRs are like dual mass flywheels. in principle, an excellent idea. in practise, crap.