My 96 civic has almost 100k miles and I have personally never changed the PCV valve so I'm going to do it on the next oil change. I read somewhere that the OEM ones are spring loaded and the aftermarket ones are not, but the one I got from AAP is spring loaded so I will use it, I think. My question is: is the valve supposed to be stricly one way? Beacuse if I try and blow air through one end I am able to, but not at a high rate. So is this thing defective, or normal?

Also, if i take the Oil filter out with out draining the oil from the oil pan, I will only lose the oil that is in the filter correct? No oil will drain from the fitting where the filter screws into?

 

if htere isnt alot of sludge build up in ur engine then i wouldn't worry about changing pcv valve. you will only lose oil that is in filter. and y would u want to change filter and not oil????

 

Well, I took my car into Honda a couple months ago to get the exhuast manifold replaced under waranty beacuse it was cracked, and they told me that they had to perform a service on it (oil chagefilter, spark plugs, wires, cap, rotor) So they did all that, and I went to change my oil the other day and I usually drain it, then take the filter off, so it finishes draining, and I go to take the filter off, and the damn tech had to have used a wrench to tighten it because it's on there gorilla tight! And I didn't have a filter wrench for that size filter because I always just hand tighten my filters, so I had no choice but to leave it on there and go buy a filter wrench after I added the fresh oil....

 

For the PCV valve, your supposed to shake it, and if you can hear a rattle, then your good, if not,replace it, but if you have never replaced it, you really should. I have never replaced mine but from doing some research, I plan to do mine my next oil change because I have some of the signs it needs to be replaced. For the oil filter, I'm pretty sure your going to get a good amount of oil draining out...

 

yeah a good PCV valve should make kinda like a rattling sound when shook. when installed, u'll hear that same kinda rattling when the car is on.

as for the oil filter, u can take it out without all the oil draining from it.there will be a fair amount of oil coming from inside the filter tho. just take the old filter off, put the new one on, let the car run for a minute, shut it off, and check the dip stick. may be a tad low so just add untill at correct level.

 

what exactly are those signs?