Hi,

My girlfriend has a 1.4 fabia which is using a fair amount of oil. I keep reading about cleaning the crankcase breather pipe which goes into the air filter. I've had a quick look and found a small pipe that comes off the rocker cover and into the air filter, is this the right pipe I should be looking at?

thanks for your help.

No lol. Crank case breather is the one on top of the rocker cover

Is it a 16v, or an 8v mpi???

Is it a 16v, or an 8v mpi???

Its a 16v

Take of the big plastic engine cover/air filter housing (push fit so just pull off) But first pull of the crankcase breather hose on the top left corner(looking at engine from front)! Trace pipe down behind and under intake manifold.. there is a filter box which is black plastic and secured with about 3 or 4 t-star screws...remove ths and soak/clean using degreaser etc then dry and refit. Better access from under car and reach up!!

Thanks i will have a look. I don't remember seeing a pipe on left side of the cover. Is it on the side or underneath?

If you can't find post back and I'll get a picture for you. Same basic block on my Polo.

I think if is newish (BBZ engine) then it will not go in the air filter housing, but under the throttle body. What year is it?

Its an 03 plate. Thanks triggerfish i will have a look at the weekend and if i can't find it i will let you know.

the beather pod is the black plastic box on the back of the engine block, the hose goes up on the drivers side of the car into the top of the air filter box... to get it off you will need a 6mm allen key, there are 2 little rubber o-ring things under it too... it can be quite tricky to get off because the driveshafts get in the way, and you have to do it from underneath the car too... it's very common for them to get caked in horrible oil inside too. the 16v engines do tend to breath quite a lot anyway

I think if is newish (BBZ engine) then it will not go in the air filter housing, but under the throttle body. What year is it?

no on the 16v ones the throttle body is on the passenger side end of the intake manifold, the breather pipe is on the drives side.. the pipe under the throttle body goes to the evap system purge valve/charcoal canister

Nope, in BBZ the pipe is going to the passenger side(from the oil separator box), there is no pipe going in the air filter box on the drivers side, the breather system was modified from AUB engines. And there is also a small pipe going from the rocker cover to the air filter box on the passenger side too.

ah yes i know the type you mean, there is also another type which has a plastic fitting sandwhiched between the rocker cover and the oil filler cap which has a breather pipe attached to it but i don't think they used them in the skodas

Right, well I've taken a picture anyway seeings as I had the camera out and was working on the car.

Pretty sure this is the bit you're on about anyway (the pipe that does a 90^o turn near the up of the engine):

Sorry about poor pictures, couldn't find the other end of the pipe with the camera!

Edited 6 April, 201115 yr by TriggerFish

yeah that's the one trigger, the pic i posted above is actually a polo gti engine (same one as in your pics), and that hose goes down and then into the black plastic box

Phew, would look a right tool if I was wrong! Ah, from your conversion? Would you say it's worth having it cleaned out on these engines, or just leave it?

i've completely re-worked the breather system on mine, ive blanked off the breather pod and i'm breathing mine from the rocker cover instead, the 16v engines are a sod for oil surge problems

i've completely re-worked the breather system on mine, ive blanked off the breather pod and i'm breathing mine from the rocker cover instead, the 16v engines are a sod for oil surge problems

Hi thanks for the photos, that doesn't look much like the air filter/cover fitted to my girlfriends car. It definantley doesn't have the pipe fitted to the right hand side of the cover. I will have to have a good poke around at the weekend as it does have the pipe on the passenger side of the rocker cover which connects to the air filter. So it sounds like I need to have a look down the back of the engine!

Glad there are lots of different engine variants, thought I was being an ar*e for not finding the breather pipe everyone mentioned.

If you picture the recessed bits with the 1.6 etc on it being a raise, flat square, it should be the same.

Is my old Fabia. If yours in anything like that, it's just behind the dipstick in the same location. The cover just pulls off (very stiff) from the front of the car/engine.

Edited 6 April, 201115 yr by TriggerFish

If you picture the recessed bits with the 1.6 etc on it being a raise, flat square, it should be the same.

Is my old Fabia. If yours in anything like that, it's just behind the dipstick in the same location. The cover just pulls off (very stiff) from the front of the car/engine.

Thats what the engine cover looks like. Just been and yaken the engine cover off and there are no pipes behind the dipstick, except the coolant pipes going to the expansion tank.

As I said in my first reply, and the above photos from Triggerfish & Teflontom are what the 1.4 16v AUB engine is,.. I know as I've taken mine apart. So if you can't find the pipe in Triggerfish's images (the black 1 inch diameter rubber one by the brake fuild resev' in picture) then F**K knows whats up with your GF's car!! Caus that pipe is exactly tha same shape, size, position in the AUB 1.4 16v engine!!! Ok so the other bits arn't but still... Maybe the pipes been disconected?? Could you take a photo and post it up???

WHHHHOOOO HOLD ON A MO EVERYONE!!! Just been checking my Haynes.. You could (has this been mentioned before?) have a version which has a "spacer" plate between the throttle valve unit and the inlet manifold.. the crankcase breather fits to this "spacer" plate. So look at the top right area under the big black plastic cover!!!

Edited 6 April, 201115 yr by fabdavrav

As I said in my first reply, and the above photos from Triggerfish & Teflontom are what the 1.4 16v AUB engine is,.. I know as I've taken mine apart. So if you can't find the pipe in Triggerfish's images (the black 1 inch diameter rubber one by the brake fuild resev' in picture) then F**K knows whats up with your GF's car!! Caus that pipe is exactly tha same shape, size, position in the AUB 1.4 16v engine!!! Ok so the other bits arn't but still... Maybe the pipes been disconected?? Could you take a photo and post it up???

WHHHHOOOO HOLD ON A MO EVERYONE!!! Just been checking my Haynes.. You could (has this been mentioned before?) have a version which has a "spacer" plate between the throttle valve unit and the inlet manifold.. the crankcase breather fits to this "spacer" plate. So look at the top right area under the big black plastic cover!!!

I think you have just cracked it. Had a look in the haynes manual and found the spacer you mean. It says this is fitted to pre 08/2003 cars which this one is. I will have a good look at the weekend and let you know and try to get a picture of it.

Yeh but they is wrong on the date because mine is 2001 AUB engine and mine is like the photos!! So must be BBZ version that you have to have the "Spacer" When you lifted of the cover were there like plastic boxes on top of the spark plug leads?? These would be the individual coil packs which the BBZ engine got!

For reference, the one in the photos was a Feb 2001 registered car.

this is my AVY 1.6 16v breather...

i have altered it to re-route back after my piperx

Yeh but they is wrong on the date because mine is 2001 AUB engine and mine is like the photos!! So must be BBZ version that you have to have the "Spacer" When you lifted of the cover were there like plastic boxes on top of the spark plug leads?? These would be the individual coil packs which the BBZ engine got!

Hi,Right I have some photos of the engine, your right it does seem to have the boxes on top of the spark plug leads