What does the breather pipe do?

[al_bey]

I removed my induction kit today to clean the throttle body. i noticed i bit of gunk in the breather pipe. I took the whole thing off, starting near the throttle body, all the way down to where it goes into the bottom of the engine block. The whole pipe was full of yellow and brown gunk.

I decided to take the square cover on the top of the engine block off, no. 17 in picture below. Inside was a round filter type thing that looked like it was absolutely full of sh!t. So popped the top off it and i was right.

So....inside this filter is a rubber type thing that i found had a tear in it. I dont think your meant to take it apart because i had to superglue the top back on.
Anyway, i cleaned all the pipes and the filter put it all back together. The car seems more responsive for sure.

I now need a new filter thing, anybody know what they are called?

Also, what does the breather pipe do and why did it have oil in it?

Cheers

[boneybradley]

I aint using technical terms here so....
the breather lets the oil go round the engine to vent the top end....breath in other words (otherwise when the oil gets to the top end it wouldnt be able to return to the bottom/sump) and gunk this time of year is fairly normal (condensation etc)
and i would say the filter is simply called a "breather filter" allthough the part youve circled in my cat just says breather hose and mine only shows 16 (the full pipe)

[DazVR6]

Isn't that black box (No 17) the cover for the pcv...?, i know it is on a 16v and if thats busted it creates a vac leak which can affect the running of your engine.

[kr1s77]

yeah its the PCV, not sure of the cost. i think its a dealer part only, not sure

[Stu G]

is that the 2e engine? if it is ive just replaced that pipe and the one that runs down into the bottom of theblock. it cost me 11 quid and 33 quid to replace both pipes. id show pics but the car is away in the body shop

[al_bey]

When you say you've replaced both pipes. Does that include the actual filter that goes into the rocker cover? I just know im gonna ring up vw and they'll prob want about 50£ for it. I phoned up VW two days ago to ask how much the hall sender unit would be, literally a bit of plastic inside the dizzy (well nearly) and they wanted £59.00 for it, couldnt believe it!

[DazVR6]

When you say you've replaced both pipes. Does that include the actual filter that goes into the rocker cover? I just know im gonna ring up vw and they'll prob want about 50£ for it. I phoned up VW two days ago to ask how much the hall sender unit would be, literally a bit of plastic inside the dizzy (well nearly) and they wanted £59.00 for it, couldnt believe it!

Tahts why they are affectionatly known as the stealers.....