Dropped PCV valve grommet in valve cover

[Ralph_Maldonado]

I did a stupid thing. While trying to replace the PCV valve and grommet, I dropped the bottom half of the old PCV valve grommet into the valve cover. It's a 1997 Mazda 1.5l engine. How serious is this and should I immediately open up the valve cover and try and remove the grommet? Please help.

[coffeysh]

My guess is it won't hurt anything. But that is just a guess. If it floats around and gets wedged in an oil return passage it can cause some problems. On the other hand it may just sit there for years and not do a thing.

YOu need to weigh the risk of leaving it in there against the risk of removing it. There is a risk with everything. Getting the grommet out of the valve area would surely remove the risk of something going wrong with it in there. On the other hand there is a risk, be it small, with taking the valve cover off. I don't know how to trade the two risks off against each other. You might think you can't go wrong getting it out of there. But, you couldn't go wrong changing the PCV and look what happened.

It depends on how industrious you are and how mechanically inclined you are. Also, it probably won't hurt to put a new gasket on the valve cover. They tend to leak after a few years. So, you might look on the bright side that taking the valve cover off affords you the opportunity to put on a new valve cover gasket.