i noticed on the autozone bags it says to change your pcv or pvc (i forgot what it said) valve every 6000 miles. what is it and what does it do? does a bad one hurt anything?

That'* a good question, I bought one just for when I needed a replacement, what would be the symptom in changing one.

PCV - Positive Crankcase Ventilation valve. This valve allows the lower half of the engine to breath. It'* like a check valve to let air in, and prevents a negative pressure in the crankcase.

And when it goes bad, the car delivers what type of symptom?

from what i can sorta remeber from school. there realy is no way of telling if it is working or not. but when it goes bad your car will start to get poopy gas milage, and you motor will not have as much power. other then that i dont realy think theres anything else.

i noticed that some one had a breather filter on the
pcv valve area..... what does this do ???

will it help or hurt...?


and i noticed that some one has a breather filter over where they pour in the oil...
what does this do?

does it hurt or help????

Purely cosmetic, and it can cause problems.

I changed mine at 80-90 k. But the spring pressure seemed same as new one when I shook it. They can gunk up if your oil'* not changed regularly. Then the plunger inside won't move freely.

If they shake, they're probably okay. Try sucking on the vacuum side and and the plunger closes down to reduce air flow during idle. Try with new one. Mine I changed out was the same.

Just made me feel good to change it and transferred some money to Fram.

From another post today:

miles26 wrote:
What are the symptoms of a bad PCV Valve?


My '95 FSM lists these:

A plugged valve may cause: rough idle, stalling or slow idle speed, oil leaks, sludge in engine

A leaking valve would cause: rough idle stalling, high idle speed.

BTW.. PCV valve is about a $2 item. If in doubt change it and watch out for the o ring in the pcv tube