I'm in the process of replacing the PCV valve on our 2008 EX-L and it broke off during the attempted removal. What's the best way to get the rest out?
Broke off PCV valve during removal
MichiganOutlaw
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I'm in the process of replacing the PCV valve on our 2008 EX-L and it broke off during the attempted removal. What's the best way to get the rest out?
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Praise God I got it out! WOW!!! That thing was stuck! My question now is...I know some of the plastic busted off inside, however I was using my shop vac to suck it out while I continued to attempt to remove it. I'm pretty sure I removed all of the broken plastic, BUT it also looks like there's no place for it to go once I put the new PCV valve in. Can someone confirm that even if there is a little bit of plastic left inside, can it go anywhere in the valve body or is it going to stay put? Thanks.
It goes inside the valve cover for the front bank of cylinders. Easiest way to get it out is going to be to remove the valve cover and fish out any bits. Anything that does fall out would be on top of the valve train. You should be able to fish out the pieces using a pick or something like that - just see if you have everything. If not, then pull the valve cover (not that hard to do - you need to remove the intake manifold and a few other things, but it's pretty easy to do.
Not certain if it can go anywhere, but do know its unlikely that a very small piece of plastic would cause damage unless it clogs a journal.
I was removing a bad job of an intake manifold gasket on a SBC and on the front/back of those, many guys will garage engineer some RTV as if a 62 year running design wasn't good enough... well i dropped a piece the size of a green bean down the distributor hole! off came the oil pan, out came the oil pump cause I was worried.
Speaking of praising God, i ended up finding that that motor was shot... scratched bearings. The guy gave me most of my $1200 back.
Point is, reconstruct what you got out and if only a small shard is missing, I wouldn't worry. If your scared, pull the valve cover (they are on the valve cover, right?)
I was removing a bad job of an intake manifold gasket on a SBC and on the front/back of those, many guys will garage engineer some RTV as if a 62 year running design wasn't good enough... well i dropped a piece the size of a green bean down the distributor hole! off came the oil pan, out came the oil pump cause I was worried.
Speaking of praising God, i ended up finding that that motor was shot... scratched bearings. The guy gave me most of my $1200 back.
Point is, reconstruct what you got out and if only a small shard is missing, I wouldn't worry. If your scared, pull the valve cover (they are on the valve cover, right?)
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I broke mine when I pulled it too. If I recall I used a drywall screw or something, threaded it in there and pulled it out. Getting out pieces could be a bit more tricky.
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Well I've put almost 200 miles on since assuming that I was able to shop vac all the pieces out...so far so good. I'm 99.9% sure nothing was left inside. All I can say is that I hope no one else has this happen to them; it wasn't a good feeling.
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Yeah, I got a little concerned too. Then you just put on a thinking cap and figure the way out. On mine it just snapped the end off. I made the mistake of prying on it with a screwdriver and it was more brittle than I thought. Threading the screw into it worked really good, though.
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Even if the plastic pieces dropped into the area covered by the valve cover, I wouldn't worry. Those oil return passages are fairly large-sized, you have a screen prior to the oil pump, and then after the pump comes your full-flow spin-on canister filter.
Also, even if a piece was large enough to get stuck in an oil-return passage, there are plenty more in the cylinder head that lead back to the oil pan. Your cylinder head won't become overfilled with oil.
OF
Also, even if a piece was large enough to get stuck in an oil-return passage, there are plenty more in the cylinder head that lead back to the oil pan. Your cylinder head won't become overfilled with oil.
OF
Just happened to me... I was able to use a 3 1/2" deck screw to remove the end of it, but I can tell there are parts of it that are missing. :-( I can't see them anywhere looking in the PCV hole with a mirror, but based on pictures I've seen of guys doing valve jobs, either they're gone down that big old hole just below where the PCV valve lives (which goes...?), or they're in the valve train area. I guess I'm going with Odyfamily's advice right now--not to worry. After all, it's plastic and if it meets a gear, it's not the gear that's going to suffer. ;-) Here's hoping!
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Guys, I decided to break apart an OEM PCV valve I removed a while back when I performed a valve adjustment on one of our Gen 2 vans (it was sitting on the outside shelf of my rollaway).
There is ONE metallic part, but again, I would believe it is of no consequence.
I'm sure everybody has seen a spring from a ball point pen. Now imagine that spring being about 2/3 as long, and made from spring wire that is very thin, almost a hair spring. That's how that spring is constructed. It's very petite.
Again, I don't believe it would cause any problems. Its diameter is slightly larger than the holes in the sheet metal screen below the oil pump intake. I've had the valve covers off a couple times, and should it run down an oil return passage, that's fine. If it sits in the low point on the cylinder head, it'll probably stay there for the life of the van.
OF
There is ONE metallic part, but again, I would believe it is of no consequence.
I'm sure everybody has seen a spring from a ball point pen. Now imagine that spring being about 2/3 as long, and made from spring wire that is very thin, almost a hair spring. That's how that spring is constructed. It's very petite.
Again, I don't believe it would cause any problems. Its diameter is slightly larger than the holes in the sheet metal screen below the oil pump intake. I've had the valve covers off a couple times, and should it run down an oil return passage, that's fine. If it sits in the low point on the cylinder head, it'll probably stay there for the life of the van.
OF
Actually, I was able to get the metal spring out! But thanks for the reassurance. ;-)
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I got mine out too when this happened. The shop vac worked wonders.
Yeah, I tried a shop vac, but it didn't get anything... I duct taped a piece of flexible clear tubing on the shop vac hose, to try to fish around inside the PCV cavity, but nothing came out (other than a bit of oil). :-(
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I just went to change mine this morning and mine broke too 
I thought I would replace it as a PM since I am pretty sure it has never been done. Gives me a little bit of reassurance I guess that it has happened to a few others too. I was worried I was going to have to tell the wife I was either going to have to take it to the a mechanic or figure out how to remove the valve cover (which I probably could figure out). I just put it back together and came to the ol interwebs to see what I could find. I will try to get it out with a screw first.
I thought I would replace it as a PM since I am pretty sure it has never been done. Gives me a little bit of reassurance I guess that it has happened to a few others too. I was worried I was going to have to tell the wife I was either going to have to take it to the a mechanic or figure out how to remove the valve cover (which I probably could figure out). I just put it back together and came to the ol interwebs to see what I could find. I will try to get it out with a screw first.
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Just replace this in my 05 with 166k miles, it was tough getting out but it did not break. It was totally gunked up, no noise when shaking it and a thick layer of stuff on the outside. Got it out by twisting it back and forth until I got a gap of about 1/8 inch then used a flat screw driver to slowly twist to increase the gap, it came out easy after that.
Yeah, that sounds like the right approach. I know for next time! :tongue:
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