[mike1967]

Cleaning up the bits I've removed today to refit later after I've done the cam chain change. - Just have some questions re. the valve cover.

First of all - What's this gizmo on the rear edge of the rocker cover and should it have anything connected to it ? (mine hasn't)

Second - I noticed the support ribs on the inside of the cover have been damaged slightly by it pressing / rubbing against the top of the cam chain top guide. The old guide itself is not visibly damaged. Is there supposed to be physical contact between the chain guide and the cover ? Seems like poor engineering to me...

Lastly - The top plastic section with the Mini emblem on it - can it be removed if required or is it permanently fixed to the lower section ? I tried to unclip it but it seemed pretty tight so I didn't want to force it in case I broke something I shouldn't.

Cheers - Dave.

the valve on rear of rocker cover is a pcv breather it has a tiny spring in it and a rubber valve that preload on the spring is set to work with the high and lower pressures from inlet manifold to open and close, when these fail it can make car run badly idle jumps around and also can effect the fueling trim in the process as it lets in unmetered air flow in to the inlet manifold that has already been counted by the maf ie at wrong time etc,
the n14 turbo engines are prone the most to top guide moving or snapping off just because the way they are made, and are the most common to snap off the top guide as well when chain rattle, i would say the broken bits of rib are down to either a past top gude failure or you just caught yours in time,, what i would now do for piece of mind is drop sump and check in bottom and oil pick up filter for the bits of plastic, if cant find them then chances are its had a top guide failure before you owned it,, i have seen them on hard driven cars fail 24k they have seen them 80-100k rattling light hell but still no broken,
as for the mini badge i believe they are bonded on with stuff like tiger seal, if at some point you come to sell the car someone might see no badge and effect a sale from past experience
what i see in your pics is all in very good condition

 

[mike1967]

normally have two pipes one from inlet pipe at turbo,new cars have a heater on it then another that goes down behind the engine to inlet manifold its possible to pull that plastic part off and reveal the pcv valve thats the bit showing at back but they do snap off the plastic holding tabs, unless they have updated the system or someone has done a delete and catch can somewhere

 

[mike1967]

trouble is and i have tried many times cant just buy the rubber part and the clips snap off and once again not found anywhere that sells that either so yep new rocker cover tends to be the sure way of fixing a faulty pcv valve, i would still ask at main dealers see if they list a repair kit maybe things might have changed, do same at peugeot citroen main dealers as well as same engines in 207 208 308 gti or same ages