Tore a hole in my valve cover at mount for engine dust cover. . .

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Brmadsenad
Posts: 24
Joined: Sat Oct 27, 2012 12:22 pm
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

Tore a hole in my valve cover at mount for engine dust cover. . .

Postby Brmadsenad » Wed May 04, 2022 1:42 pm

Am I the only person to ever do this? I was replacing my heater hose assembly, for the second time. The two replacements were 7 years apart, but still frustrating that the plastic used on that part was so poor. This time, I went with the aftermarket metal assembly, which is working great. But that is a different story.

As I was removing the plastic dust shield from the engine to make space to pull out the heater hose assembly, the silly bolt-head-through-rubber-grommet deal that holds dust shield to a mount on the valve cover was being stubborn. In my exuberance to remove it, I tore the whole mount off, making a hole in my valve cover. Eff, as they say.

I fixed it with some JB Plasticweld putty, and it is fine. But, man, am I the only one who has damaged their valve cover this way?

If I decide to perform any maintenance that gets me down into the valve cover, I would replace the whole thing. But it is working fine with my fix.


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VStar650CL
Posts: 501
Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2020 6:19 pm

Re: Tore a hole in my valve cover at mount for engine dust cover. . .

Postby VStar650CL » Wed May 04, 2022 2:44 pm

Plastic valve covers embrittle with age just like every other common plastic part. The way you broke it is a bit uncommon, usually the brass inserts for the coil screws give up and spin out of the holes. I did once see one on an old Altima shatter from having a large wrench dropped on it. Attention Nissan shoppers, Blue Light Special in the Stuff Gets Old Department!


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