Moment of sheer terror....

[Maverick]

So im changing my oil, checking my fluids and all that normal jazz .. I figure i might as well take a close look at the infamous pcv and decide to pull it and make sure its not clogging or anything.. i disconnect the hose and give it a tug, and it pops out. But much to my dismay, the grommet that holds it rips in half, and as if in slow motion, i watch the lower half slowly fall into the head....
a few choice words later , i peer in and its no where to be seen... great, all i need is a hunk of deteriorating rubber in my valves...
So i get out the flash light, and luckily, i could see just a bit of it fairly deep and definatly out of reach.. after digging through the med kit, i finally found a set of super long surgical forcips, and i was able to snag the remnants of the gromet (nervously as i was worried over pushing it further in, or breaking off more pieces) ...forcips are now in my tool box on permanent loan..
anyhow, i lucked out and didnt have to pull the valve cover..but this is a first for me and wanted to spread the work to watch out for this issue.. I still need to find a new gromet, but i was able to make what i had left work... it was a scarry few minutes though....
oh, and ofcourse my PCV was like new..

[SGT.BATGUANO]

Someone else had this problem. They found a replacement grommet. Try a search.

[vxkween]

Someone wrote earlier that they had found the grommet at Autozone...here's the info I wrote down from that post:

Ford/Mercury Motormite 42330

hope that helps

[Andrey]

that someone was me... look here http://www.vehicross.info/forums/sho...hlight=grommet

[vxkween]

Sorry Andre...couldn't remember who had written the post

[Maverick]

thats what i get for not properly "keeping up" on things at vehicross.info.... (kicks self in head)

thanks for the info!!

[Andrey]

Maverick, you should not be upset about grommet. PCV valve whole another story. I am not sure if any of the manufacturers require grommet to be replaced with a new one over the lifetime of a vehicle. Oil fumes inside the engine "melt" this thing like a butter. I wanna see the new grommet that I've installed in couple of years to judge if original grommet installed on VX was no good to begin with. None of my previously owned vehicles required a replacement of grommet. Though they've required other major things to be replaced