[nima0501]

Hey guys. I decided to take on the job of replacing the valve cover gasket on my wife's 2011 328ix. Upon trying to remove the vent hose at the back of the valve cover I broke the hose thinking I had unclipped it fully when I had not.

It appears that the vent hose does a T but it is under the intake manifold. Is there a way to fix this hose or do I need to take the intake manifold off and get a new hose from the T. If I do need to get a new hose from the T is there anything special I need to know to detach and reattach the new hose?

[nima0501]

adding pictures

[bluewater328]

Originally Posted by nima0501

adding pictures

Crankcase breather. Probably one of the most common breaks. Need to replace before driving or your idle will be all over the place. Unless you have a 330i I believe the rest all have this part below. Your T is actually part of one piece.

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...se-11157559528

You probably could get a generic brand since its just a breather hose. $21-38 on eBay.

[Efthreeoh]

So you're in for a world of hurt. This is a common problem when replacing the VCG. Even us seasoned 30+year BMW shade tree mechanics KNOWING this hose breaks, still manage to break it (that'd be me...). The replacement requires pulling the intake manifold. The hose is part of the CCV (er... positive crankcase ventilation system in BMW-speak) and routes to the manifold.

But let me throw some options at you other than pulling the intake, one which I did on my E90, and the second one is a thought I've not yet tried.

Option 1 - So I broke the same hose in the exact same place and I field-repaired it using a common household plumbing part and JB Weld. It's held going on 2.5 years and 55,000 miles so far. Hopefully you know a little bit about household plumbing.. 1/2-inch copper pipe is soldered together with copper butt-joint connectors. The outside diameter of the butt-joint connector fits perfectly inside the diameter of the broken hose. JB Weld holds it in place. The trick is cleaning real well the inside and outside of the hose to remove the oil residue. Steps:

1 - Remove the fitting side of the hose from the valve cover
2 - Use Brake-Kleen (or similar) to clean the inside and outside of both sections of the the hose. It's best to follow up with Brake-Kleen soaked Q-tips to get in between the ribs of the hose. You just need to clean the hose a few inches past where the butt-joint fits in.
3 - Use denatured alcohol as a final cleaning step in similar fashion to cleaning with the Brake-Kleen (i.e. use the Q-tips)
4 - Mix up a good amount of JB Weld.
5 - Coat the inside lip of the hose section that is attached to the manifold. Coat the outside lip of the butt-joint with JB Weld and slide it into the hose half way. You want some of the JB Weld to get into the crevices of the ribs in the hose.
6 - Coat the other side of the butt-joint and hose section that attaches to the valve cover and slide that section of hose over the butt-joint.
7 - Coat the outside of the now re-joint hose sections a few inches each way from where the hose split.
8 - Let it set up overnight for a good bond of the JB weld.

The section option, and this is just a thought based on how BMW instructs their Techs to perform the CCV heated connector recall. The heated connector recall is part of the CCV system too. BMW replaces it by removing the alternator from the engine, which gives access to underneath the manifold and this may be enough room to work to remove the section of the hose from the manifold without needing to remove the manifold. If you do remove the alternator, you'll need new mouting bolts as they are one-time use aluminum.

Hope this helps. A 1/2-inch copper-pipe butt-joint is this:

[bluewater328]

^ Nice solution. $30 ain't gonna kill nobody, but I guess it's better than pulling the alternator or the IM if you don't need to.


If you do the alternator option, be careful where you put your hands and lean on. The radiator hoses and connections are a bit fragile in that area. A few of us have unwittingly been subject to peculiar hose breaks right after the recall was performed -- some believe due to the hand/body position they are possibly taking on the radiator hoses as they reach under the manifold.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by bluewater328

^ Nice solution. $30 ain't gonna kill nobody, but I guess it's better than pulling the alternator or the IM if you don't need to.


If you do the alternator option, be careful where you put your hands and lean on. The radiator hoses and connections are a bit fragile in that area. A few of us have unwittingly been subject to peculiar hose breaks right after the recall was performed -- some believe due to the hand/body position they are possibly taking on the radiator hoses as they reach under the manifold.

It wasn't a cost thing. It was a time thing. I didn't have time to pull the manifold. I'm going to do it over Christmas break this year. I'm replacing the entire CVV (I have an '06) and the starter.

[bluewater328]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

It wasn't a cost thing. It was a time thing. I didn't have time to pull the manifold. I'm going to do it over Christmas break this year. I'm replacing the entire CVV (I have an '06) and the starter.

Is that the one with the pig bladder? If you want one I have one from a 330i IM.

[nima0501]

Awesome advice both of you, thank you!

@Efthreeoh I thought of doing JBWeld last night and decided why not so put a layer on last night, and a second coat this morning before I had read your post. The idea of using a butt connector is genius as I simply applied the JBWeld first coat and then expanded on the second coat thinking the JB would hold onto it self further. Having the internal rigidity to push against and adhear to may be the way I go (will see once this cures). Also thanks for the suggestion of going under rather than over to potentially get to the hose, this could be a huge time save if I have to go this route.

@bluewater328 you mention a rough idle if the hose breaks. Is that the only side effect and will it not do any permanent damage? If so this would be great as I wouldn't have to worry quite so much about a fix vs replacement.

[bluewater328]

Originally Posted by nima0501

Awesome advice both of you, thank you!
....

@bluewater328 you mention a rough idle if the hose breaks. Is that the only side effect and will it not do any permanent damage? If so this would be great as I wouldn't have to worry quite so much about a fix vs replacement.

As a temporary fix, there are a lot of guys with heat shield tape and other things running around with functional cars. I made fun of it on this board a few times, but you can tell who does their own work on their cars by people who have torn foam on the CCV hose. hehe

But you should look to replace at some point. If you get a rough ride (not related to suspension) and possibly even shutdowns, then your fix didn't work.

[nima0501]

Correction: I see what you are saying about the alternator now and not going from the bottom but still the top. Next I plan to do the oil filter housing gasket, replace serpentine belt and tensioner pully so this may be a great time to take the alternator out and go for a new hose. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by nima0501

Awesome advice both of you, thank you!

@Efthreeoh I thought of doing JBWeld last night and decided why not so put a layer on last night, and a second coat this morning before I had read your post. The idea of using a butt connector is genius as I simply applied the JBWeld first coat and then expanded on the second coat thinking the JB would hold onto it self further. Having the internal rigidity to push against and adhear to may be the way I go (will see once this cures). Also thanks for the suggestion of going under rather than over to potentially get to the hose, this could be a huge time save if I have to go this route.

@bluewater328 you mention a rough idle if the hose breaks. Is that the only side effect and will it not do any permanent damage? If so this would be great as I wouldn't have to worry quite so much about a fix vs replacement.

My fix worked great, but I did it all at one time, the butt-connector fits in pretty tight without any JB Weld so if you've coated the inside of the pipe it may not fit. Acetone may help, if you wet the JB with it, or find a suitable smaller diameter pipe. I'm not sure about genius, I just have a lot of shit laying around the shop and it worked! Someone in another thread about retrofitting F30 mirrors to an E90 suggested I never challenge myself. Hummmm....

Anyway, the going in through the alternator is just a suggestion based on how the SA described the fix for the heat angle valve they did on my Z4. The Z4 has more elbow room in the engine compartment than the E90. Look at it closely before you go that route. It may be easier to just pull the manifold. I'm replacing the CVV on my E90 because I think it is worn out and I want to replace the starter since the car has 360,000 on it. So puling the manifold for me is a 2-birds thing.

[lowrydr310]

Originally Posted by bluewater328

As a temporary fix, there are a lot of guys with heat shield tape and other things running around with functional cars. I made fun of it on this board a few times, but you can tell who does their own work on their cars by people who have torn foam on the CCV hose. hehe

I did the same thing when changing my valve cover gasket. And just like Efthreeoh, KNOWING how fragile this hose is and being SUPER EXTRA CAREFUL when trying to remove it, I still managed to break it. I didn't have time to order a new hose and wait, so I used self-sealing silicone tape to wrap it back together. It's been holding well so far. My buzzy idle is no different than before I broke the hose.

I do plan to replace the hose when I remove the intake manifold to inspect the rest of the crankcase ventilation plumbing.

[nima0501]

At this point we are back together with about 5 layers of JB weld on the hose, the first two coats seemed to actually be pretty strong when I was moving the hose around to check it out!

I will probably look to replace the hose a little further down the road or see how tough the replacement would be if I was able to pull the alternator when I do the oil filter housing gasket.

Thanks for the support and tips guys!!

[peafarmer]

I think the JB weld idea is awesome, no sense taking the intake manifold off to replace this crappy hose. I looked at the scope if that job, and wonder what I would break trying to replace the hose that I already broke. Since JB weld is epoxy I think that it is probably stronger than the original material. Right now I have it held together with duct tape and it is working, but will get back into it this week to do the JB weld / copper fitting repair.

Also, it looks like the failure of this hose seems to be right where the foam ends. I think when I fix mine I'll put foam all the way to the valve cover if I can find some. Can you buy this stuff? I know they have it for household copper plumbing, but I doubt that could stand up to the heat. I have never seen foam like this in an auto parts store but it is used a lot in cars so maybe I just missed it.

[rubberlegs]

I was actually able to replace this hose without having to remove the intake manifold. The secret is to use a pair of double-joint needle nose pliers. Best to google a search for these as they're not that common. I paid $22 at Princess Auto (Harbor Freight cousin) and these were about 13" long.
- remove the fuel rail system.
- with the double-joint pliers, free up the two bottom side connectors. This will call for good lighting to see between the manifold tubes.
- the new hose connectors can easily be pushed into place with a large flat screw driver. Wait for the click.
Best $22 I ever spent

[2011e91]

Originally Posted by rubberlegs

I was actually able to replace this hose without having to remove the intake manifold. The secret is to use a pair of double-joint needle nose pliers. Best to google a search for these as they're not that common. I paid $22 at Princess Auto (Harbor Freight cousin) and these were about 13" long.
- remove the fuel rail system.
- with the double-joint pliers, free up the two bottom side connectors. This will call for good lighting to see between the manifold tubes.
- the new hose connectors can easily be pushed into place with a large flat screw driver. Wait for the click.
Best $22 I ever spent

I was able to remove/replace without having to deal with the alternator or intake. I used a combination of a coat hanger, long screw drivers, snips and picks to snip to part you squeeze to remove pressure at the connection and then remove the hose....took a while but wasn't that difficult. A long/large flat blade assisted snapping them back in. The entire job was a bear though.

With the hose still connected to the two bottom connectors I cut the hose to separate them making it easier to twist and pull each connection loose.