Pcv valve? Where are you?

Prius Spark Plugs and PCV valve - PriusLiftSupports.com

 

That's the 2nd Generation Prius engine, not 3rd. The 3rd is located in a different place.

 

Rats!

 

The G3 PCV valve is located under the air cleaner assembly. It is a devil to get a wrench on. I removed, cleaned and reinstalled the OEM PCV valve at around 30,000 miles.

The manual is not much help in either identifying or removing the valve. It calls for and illustrates a "ball joint lock nut wrench" which I don't have and looks too weak to break it loose. I used the box end of a Craftsman 22 mm combination wrench that I cut to length per the below picture to allow it to swing inside of the obstructed area of the valve. The only way I could get to it was from underneath the car.



Good luck keeping your cool on this one. You will not be happy with Toyota about how extraordinarily difficult it is to remove and replace the G3 PCV valve. Let us know how you make out.

 

22mm, it's best accessed by removing the lower engine cover. Look below the intake.

The valve is a major PITA to remove. Very little room, and you cannot unscrew it by hand since it has thread sealer.





iPhone ?

 

Wow. This is an easy DIY on most cars. Assuming it's found and you got the hose off it could you get a socket on it rather than a box -end?

SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 ?

 

How do you know if the PCV valve needs replacing?

 

Generally, you can take it off, run some Gunk through it, shake to make sure the check valve rattles and then put it back in. But they only cost a few bucks, do why not just change it, especially if you've already spent a half hour just getting to it?



SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 ?

 

Den 49 I wonder if Craftsman will honor their "lifetime warranty" on THAT wrench??? Nice mod!!

Kind of wondering why you all feel the PCV is in need of cleaning / replacing as they have not been an issue in most of my cars, newer than the 69 Buick Skylark Conv. i own... (I think the PCV is the ONLY "smog item" on that Skylark!)

We are talking a Positive Crankcase Ventilation valve, right??? Maybe PCV stands for something else these days...

 

PCV=Please Clean Valve.

 

I found this short 22mm combo wrench on tooltopia -- it is about 6.5" long so it may be the perfect length:

Great deal on SK Hand Tool 88122 at ToolTopia.com

 

I disagree on that.

In the amount of time it takes to get the Prius up in the air on jackstand get the undertray off, you can get the air box out of the way, unclip the harness from the ~1/2 dozen connectors, disconnect the egr pipe and the little bracket that's underneath that tee's into the small coolant hoses, take off the throttle body (without disconnecting hoses) and undo the few bolts holding on the manifold. It'll take longer without a little impact gun but not that much so.

The PCV valve is then staring your in the face with lots of room to swing a wrench. I got my right angled Milwaukee fuel gun to pull the valve in a couple of seconds and screwed it back on with a regular ratchet in less than a minute.

While I was at it I ran lots of Purple Power through the EGR hole on the manifold until it was clean then rinsed with water and let it dry whilst a frosty beverage was had. The PCV hole on the manifold was cleaned too. Since the PCV hose, it was cleaned also.

No cussing, using special tools or hacking up tools was required. All in all less than an hour including drying time and a beer.

 

I'd disagree with your disagreement, about best way to access PCV valve. I accessed it from below, just exploratory, since I don't currently have a long 22 mm socket. Plus I've only got 68K km's. I did pull the hose off, and it looked very clean.

@NutzAboutBolts now has a good (access from below) video, pinned at the top of the 3rd gen maintenance sub-forum.

From the bottom I needed to remove the shield, period. In addition to raising the front, that's 5~10 minutes labour. If you regularly raise and support the front, say for oil changes, that has GOT to be easier.

Maybe @NutzAboutBolts 's 2012 is a bit different, he needed to disconnect a high voltage cable clip, to shift it a bit. In my case there was one coolant hose kind of in the way: I just pulled it back and secured with a bit of twine.

A picture, looking up, front of car (and intake manifold) is at the top of pic. I've pulled the hose off the valve.

 

It sounds like you want to remove the Intake Manifold to access the pcv valve. That is fine, but in theory, you will also need to replace that gasket as insurance against Intake leaks. Also, the method that you are proposing also disturbs a lot more connections.

 

That gasket, even after 5 years and 254,000 miles is still in great condition and is reusable.

I only did the cleaning on the manifold because it was off and I've had problems with it gunking up before.

 

According to the service manual, it is not reusable part. You are free to reuse the gasket, but it is poor advice to advise people to disturb all of those components (and re-use critical gaskets) when there is a less invasive method of accessing the PCV valve.

 

Funny how you disregard the service manual when it comes to replacing the valve but chose to selectively point out that I didn't follow the service manual when it comes to the gasket.

The gasket in question is a soft rubber gasket that is very re-useable. It does not stick to either the intake or the engine block and with no signs of damage if can be safely reused. Besides, if sealing was such an issue than there would be more bolts providing a more even seal around the perimeter of the manifold.

I personally don't see the point of struggling with access to a part when you can spend the same amount of time (maybe a little longer if you don't have impact tools) and get unreatricted access to the part. If you're swapping the valve because you think its gunked up then chances are that the manifold itself could do with a cleaning, whether it be the PCV port and the "lake of goop" under the throttle body or the EGR.

 

Why don't we just say there's two approaches?

 

I find it funny that someone that says "The valve is a major PITA to remove. Very little room, and you cannot unscrew it by hand since it has thread sealer" seems to poo-poo the idea that there's a way that take little/no extra time but allows complete access to the valve, in a thread where it's deemed appropriate to hack up tools in order to unscrew said valve.

The valve is easy to remove but requires about 15 minutes of work to get to it. If you look at the pic, how much more access could you want?

As an added benefit you don't need to buy short wrenches to fit when you're laying on your back hating life and the lack of access.

We can say there are two ways:

- One that allows easy access and uses regular tools.

- One that requires short wrenches or time hacking tools up, laying on your back and dealing with lack of access.

Which would you choose?