crankshaft breather valve?

[ricardo62]

Hi my sages,
I am wondering whether the black pancake looking component situated 6 inches forward of the oil cap on my e320 cdi w210 is the crankcase breather valve , filter?
it has a rubber pipe exiting it and joining onto a large tube that enters the turbo ,the pipes are oily where they join said components also its fairly loose where it joins the large pipe that enters turbo.
i disconnected the pipe from the pancahe component to see if it made any difference to the runing of the engine as an experiment and couldnt detect any ? just out of curiousity what would happen if i ran with this disconnected , it seems to be making the air intake to the filter and the MAF SENSOR very oily ...

 

[jay1983]

Sounds like the oil separator to me.

 

[grumpyoldgit]

I would guess that you'd have oil all over the floor after a while, followed by more serious problems, but why would you want to run it disconnected? Clean it out, along with the rubber tube/s.

 

[ricardo62]

I will see if i can unbolt it , i checked the pipe and it was not blocked just oily , just to clarify its a flat black circular object bolted to the top of the engine forward of the oil filler cap

 

[grumpyoldgit]

I don't have an under bonnet picture of the 320 engine, only a 220, but the oil separator is going to be similar I would think. It's the item between the two yellow '> <' in the top picture.

 

[Olivier]

Indeed you will have engine oil all over after a while
If you don't like it you can just put a an oil catch can on the end?
But on the E300TD some says the fumes are actually lubrication the valves steem and its better to let it go through the air intake instead of catching it in a can.