Another CCV Thread...

Hey guys, new to the forum, new to diesels, not new to wrenching.

I recently bought a 98 Jetta AHU, and someone has messed with the CCV system, as in taken most of it out and left it to leak profusely. The CCV puck has been replaced with a 3/4 heater hose tee, with one end capped, and the other end plumbed with a couple feet of hose to nowhere. The barb on the intake tube is also capped. Where the CCV tube is supposed to go into the block, there is what looks very similar to a standard PCV valve in there (actually looks more like a brake vacuum check valve,) and nothing hooked up to it aside from a vacuum cap that looks like it blew off immediately after it was installed.

Am I right in assuming someone has replaced the tube with this? Or did some models have this setup and I'm just missing a hose? I cant find anything like this in my googling, nor can I find a place to plumb a hose.

I'm about ready to build myself a catch can and do away with this mess, but if this is in fact factory and there's an easier way to fix it I'm on board.

That's not factory, the prior owner has eliminated pretty much all the CCV system and replaced it.

The tube and puck can be acquired new in the aftermarket, the hose from the puck to the intake I'm not sure about but I would bet all of it can be gotten from someone who's parted out a car.

I would replace it with functional items, I think the system is worth while even if it does contribute a little to intake clogging.

Steve

Any disadvantages to doing a catch can? The parts aren't readily available aside from online, and my commute is 100 miles round trip every day, so I'm losing lots of oil. I can whip up a catch can in no time....

Yes, all of the items will have to either come from the dealer or other online vendors. Most everything on these cars will have to come from online, very few local parts stores are going to carry anything this old although you might get lucky. I just plan on ordering online for what I need.

If you have to do a catch can in the short term I guess that would be ok, but you have to solve the problem of the lower crankcase connection anyway and that requires a specific item as a cover and that's not all that common. I assume that's where you're losing the oil?

All in all the system is best when refitted as it was designed. The mess you have now will at some point have to be resolved with something better, the catch can will work but you also have to recognize that it will put out fumes too.

I wonder if there's a reason the prior owner bastardized the CCV system. Was it because the car was consuming oil at an alarming rate and this was an attempt to stop it? You haven't said much about how many miles are on this but even knowing that tells us nothing about how it was treated / serviced by the prior owner, which is not something you're likely to know either.

Some of these cars, after crossing into the multi-hundred thousand mile mark transferred into ownership with people who were not really interested in repairing or maintaining but rather just wanted to patch things together well enough to get through the next couple days, which is not surprising really, there's a trend, at least in the US, to repair versus replace and it's getting worse. When I say that I mean replace with a new (another) vehicle rather than repair what you own. I've recently seen 2010 models in salvage yards and I find that surprising and alarming at the same time.

At any rate, I can understand if you need to keep this on the road for your commute, just hope you get it patched up enough so you can do that. I still think you should give some thought to pulling together the parts (either new or used) to put the correct CCV back in place.

Steve A

Steve Addy said:

If you have to do a catch can in the short term I guess that would be ok, but you have to solve the problem of the lower crankcase connection anyway and that requires a specific item as a cover and that's not all that common. I assume that's where you're losing the oil?


Steve A

Click to expand...

Yes that's where all the oil is leaking. I was planning on fitting a drain from the catch can to the lower crankcase so it would work more or less how it did originally, and of course a breather on the catch can, otherwise I think it may build up too much pressure.

And yes, this car has been heavily neglected for some time, and has almost 500000 kms.

Those plastic CCV pipes always break. Idparts can hook you up with a new puck and CCV. I had to replace mine since it was leaking like crazy.