Hey everyone, I was just driving home from work and midway through my trip my SES light came on. So I get home pop the hood and there is smoke coming out of the valve cover breather. I know its supposed to breath hence the name but I'm concerned that all this smoke is triggerig the service engine light.
Is this normal for a valve cover breather??
PS. My car hate me this week, i have been trying to solve the horrible hatch rattling( I feel lke its gonna crack), and my subaru needs about $700 in repairs for sensors and cats

 

I would look at PCV system. What's the code??

Jeff D.

 

is that valve cover breather a new install?

 

I didn't get it scanned, but it went off after I turned the car off and back on again.

This is a fairly new install I put it on about 2 weeks ago but haven't driven the car much at all since then.

Thanks for the replies.

 

put the oil cap back on the valve cover and see what happens

 

Can't think of any SES light that would be set by smoke or by the PCV system. In general, a lot of smoke coming out of the breather is bad. Either the PCV valve is plugged up, you are getting a lot of blowby on the rings - more than the PCV valve can handle, or your oil is so contaminated that your boiling the moisture and gunk off.

Check the cover for the top of the throttle body for oil. A heavy oil deposit would indicate you had a significant backflow in the line from the passenger valve cover to the throttle body. That line only reverses flow and blows oil into the TB when you have too much pressure buildup in the crankcase.

Just curious... why did you install the breather in the first place, and why did you choose to "open up" the closed PCV system?

As indicated, you need to get it scanned. Smoke or a plugged PCV system won't set a code, but if its running so rich that fuel is washing down the cylinder walls and getting into the oil, the overly rich condition might set a code or turn on the light.

Fred

 

I installed the breather because I got the intake manifold leak fixed and didn't want it to happen again, I also replaced the pcv valve abot 2 weeks ago when I changed the oil, and also the same time I installed the valve cover breather.

I am no longer getting the SES light I haven't since it happened the other night and I have been driving it non stop.

Now i'm curious as to wether to keep it or not, and what caused the light to go off the other night.

Thanks for all the replies guys!