Greetings to all,

I don't know if any of you have had this problem before, but if you have, you know that when you pulled out your old vacuum check valve it was cracked and melted a bit on the top side. So, you happily run off to the dealer and pay $6 for a replacement, thanking God it wasn't something worse, more expensive, or more difficult to replace.

I did that same thing. My VCV has cracked *AGAIN*, only two weeks after replacing it. Here is my advice to you, and someone else can tell me if this is worth it or just useless.

If your valve has not cracked yet, or only has a slight crack in it, pull it out and run a few tight wraps of electrical tape around it. Then, put a nice tight vertical piece over the seam on the top side of the valve. Then tape back around the ends of the tape. What you want to do is effectively seal the outer edges of the valve, which are susceptible to cracking, and then seal the top side a bit, which is also susceptible to cracking. The final piece of tape is only to hold the top pieces of tape down firm and make sure they don't slip.

My final recommendation is, move your VCV from the stock location to a location a little further way. I chose to pull mine to the other side of the wires exiting the PCM for some temperature protection. Am i insane, or will this actually help you? I know someone will let me know if I'm full of poo poo.

Hope I've helped!

Bryan

 

Are you talking about the one by the AC box? (Replaced mine last year.)

 

Yeah, that valve that looks like a spin top (the one the kids play with) with a stem coming out the top of it. Picture from shoebox's site is here. In its stock location mine seemed to melt after less than 2 weeks. I moved it to the other side of the wire bundle you see in his photo, to hopefully shield it from heat and whatnot. It's pretty much just held there by friction, but it doesn't dance around or anything. There's plenty of slack on the vacuum hoses to allow it to be moved over. I can't understand why it cracked like it did though...

 

How do you know you need to change this check valve out?

 

There's no "you know you need it when..." kind of thing - it just currently seems to be the culprit on our LT1 cars when air only blows through the defroster and the floor, instead of out the vents.