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Oil Breather Tower

Posted: 28 Oct 2014, 18:02
by freckvan1
Evening All ,

Has anyone taken apart the Oil Breather Tower to give it a thorough cleaning ?
Part number on top of unit :- 025 715 451. Also 89 111 70 902

My van 1984 , 1,9 DG , W/C , Petrol

The spare I have has been immersed in Jizer degreasant all day , after swilling out and
blasting with hose pipe (no access to air) I'm not to confident all crud has been removed .

The structure appears to have a filter at the top end , parly covered by circular flap , set at
an angle ,the walls of the unit appear to be double skinned .
The circular flap looks as though it may be clipped in to internal wall , which if removed gives access to Filter .

Any advice appreciated , plus links to drawings will be a great help .

Atb ,
Chris

Re: Oil Breather Tower

Posted: 28 Oct 2014, 18:31
by itchyfeet
Yep that angled bit comes out which helps cleaning, no filter as far as i'm aware...
Need a new o ring when you come to refit

ImageImage

Re: Oil Breather Tower

Posted: 28 Oct 2014, 20:11
by freckvan1
Thanks Itchy ,

My spare is off a 2,1 I think and am intending a straight swap with one now on .

Noticed there is just one cut out , right hand on your photos , this spare has two ,
I'll have to find out if this spare is compatible before I remove original .

Did you remove inner by compressing clip ?

Atb,
Chris

Re: Oil Breather Tower

Posted: 28 Oct 2014, 20:37
by itchyfeet
Same on all wbx as far as I know, maybe some slight year mods to the part, 2.1 will be a later van, this pic is one off an early van, that recess just aligns with the lug on the othef part so it fits one way around.

lever it out with a screwdriver, there are some squareish holes.

https://www.vwheritage.com/shop/0251154 ... x-1-9-2-1/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: Oil Breather Tower

Posted: 28 Oct 2014, 21:01
by freckvan1
Excellent Itchy , thanks for help .

Sat in kitchen playing with my Tower and it's now come apart , hurrah !

Atb,
Chris

Re: Oil Breather Tower

Posted: 28 Oct 2014, 21:27
by itchyfeet
If it's clean enough to be in the kitchen, it's probably clean enough already :D

Re: Oil Breather Tower

Posted: 30 Oct 2014, 23:33
by slowcoach
Someone had taken one of these apart, or cut it apart over on the samba forum, and took some photos.

Sparked off quite a discussion, seems like there's quite a lot going on in those things!

If I remember right, there's a gauze type filter that's often rotten away.

Re: Oil Breather Tower

Posted: 31 Oct 2014, 08:33
by ghost123uk
The gauze bit isn’t actually a filter, it is there to help the oil mist to condense back into oil droplets and to then fall back into the engine. The gauze bit often gets very gunged up with crud that is not easily removed with solvents (Jizer / Petrol etc). It is a common issue on the 8V Golf/Scirocco motor whereby it gets blocked and the resultant crankcase pressure creates the symptoms of a knackered engine. Many folk have replaced those engines when all it was was a blocked gauze it the breather.

Re: Oil Breather Tower

Posted: 31 Oct 2014, 09:52
by slowcoach
ghost123uk wrote:The gauze bit isn’t actually a filter, it is there to help the oil mist to condense back into oil droplets and to then fall back into the engine. The gauze bit often gets very gunged up with crud that is not easily removed with solvents (Jizer / Petrol etc). It is a common issue on the 8V Golf/Scirocco motor whereby it gets blocked and the resultant crankcase pressure creates the symptoms of a knackered engine. Many folk have replaced those engines when all it was was a blocked gauze it the breather.

good info!

Re: Oil Breather Tower

Posted: 18 Jan 2015, 18:59
by Ripa
slowcoach wrote:
ghost123uk wrote:The gauze bit isn’t actually a filter, it is there to help the oil mist to condense back into oil droplets and to then fall back into the engine. The gauze bit often gets very gunged up with crud that is not easily removed with solvents (Jizer / Petrol etc). It is a common issue on the 8V Golf/Scirocco motor whereby it gets blocked and the resultant crankcase pressure creates the symptoms of a knackered engine. Many folk have replaced those engines when all it was was a blocked gauze it the breather.

good info!

I agree, good info.... all off it.... have the same issue with my oiled breather hose and air filter so I have properberly have to do some service on the tower or replacement ...

Re: Oil Breather Tower

Posted: 09 Apr 2016, 11:50
by henryb
Hi Ghost 123uk have messaaged you about the gauze in the oil breather tower, we have just taken ours off to clean and there is no gauze in there, just wondered if you knew if we should get new breather tower or can we just replace gauge? Thanks

Re: Oil Breather Tower

Posted: 09 Apr 2016, 14:12
by silverbullet
There is a vacuum-actuated diaphragm and spring in the top. It allows the engine to breathe in (& burn) crankcase blow-by gases at high vacuum i.e. closed throttle. Unless it works the other way and only opens under full-throttle, low-vacuum conditions, which would make more sense for idle emission testing. I cant recall now.
Reckoning is that a lot of wbx will have rotted the diaphragm by now and it's non-servicable anyway.

Sent from my Atari 7800

Re: Oil Breather Tower

Posted: 10 Apr 2016, 04:05
by henryb
Thanks for the info silver bullet, cheers

Re: Oil Breather Tower

Posted: 11 Apr 2016, 07:15
by itchyfeet
I knew that enoscope I bought would have a use sometime, gold bit is a spring.
Image

Re: Oil Breather Tower

Posted: 11 Apr 2016, 16:05
by silverbullet
I recall sawing the top off a damaged one for a look inside. Not sure I kept it though...