Greetings,
I have a 1985 Camry le, with automatic transmission. I was told recently that my pcv valve was plugged, and that replacement was simple. I purchased a replacement valve, but while trying to remove the current valve, it snapped in half, leaving me with part of it still in the gromit, inside the engine.
I am uncertain of how to proceed. Taking it to a professional seems like the unavoidable option. There is one not a minute from the car’s current location. However, research indicates that the car will be unlikely to start unless I can plug the pcv valve ( and / or presumably where it was leading to. Can anyone recommend a method of doing this for a very short drive?
My thanks for any advice anyone might have.
You need to remove the valve cover to retrieve the other half of the PCV valve.
Not that hard.
Tester
Use a pair of pliers and yank the broken part out of the grommet. You may need to use needle-nose pliers.
There you go. Answers to both scenarios.
All in the same breath you said the broken piece was in the grommet, in the engine. Which?
I think on this car, the PCV valve may be on the intake manifold instead of the valve cover, which is quite a bit more difficult remove. If the chunk that fell in there wasn’t too big, you may be able to get in there with a shop-vac and simply suck it out, or fish it out using the suction and a small screwdriver.
Also, if you do decide to take this to a professional, you are wrong that your car won’t start without a PCV valve. It’ll start just fine, but the gasses in the crank case will waft out of the tube to the PCV valve and there will be a bit of a vacuum leak out of the hole where the valve went. For a short drive, you’d be fine just plugging both of these with a rag or something similar. The only danger is that if it was a small piece that fell into the intake manifold, it could be sucked into the cylinder at which point it will be really difficult to remove and may cause some internal damage.
My apologies for my lack of clarity. In the 1985 Camry, the pcv valve sits in a gromit which itself sits in (I believe) the valve cover. When the pcv valve snapped in half, the gromit remained seated, so have the valve was stuck in the gromit, which itself was still stuck in the engine. I’d thought to remove the gromit, and thereby the rest of the pcv valve, but unfortunately it was very brittle.
In the end, I used a screw to plug the return hose, reasoning that this would be not unlike the clogged pcv valve that I had which started the entire mess. I reasoned also that it would be okay to leave the out flow unplugged, since that would be not unlike forgetting to replace the oil cap. I drove it to the nearest mechanic, who quite kindly took a look at the problem for free. Using a screwdriver, he proceeded to completely destroy the gromit, and the remaining pcv valve which was fused to it. He then fished the pieces which had fallen into the hole out using a small hook and a pair of needle nosed pliers.
Had I known this was an option, I could have presumably done this on my own, but inexeperience and a lack of bravery kept me from out and out destroying the thing. Now I know, and knowing is half the battle.
Regardless, my thanks to everyone for their advice and suggestions. You’ve all been most helpful.
I used to own a 85 Camry. The PCV valve plugs into the valve cover.
Tester