Ok, I figured out the locking tabs on the fuel lines. Buuuuuut the filter the shop sold me is the wrong one. It hasn't got that metal ridge on the nipples onto which the locking tabs on the fuel lines latch onto.

So back to ye olde shoppe on the morrow. Oh well. At least I know how to do it now.

Next question, I want to clean the PCV valve. I've crawled under the engine and I can see where the breather hose comes down. It attaches to a bulbous looking section of tube at the bottom which, in turn, plugs into a black, plastoc box on the rear of the crank case. The bulbous looking section of tubing between the breather hose and the black box looks like it might be the one-way check valve for the PCV system. I can't imagine what else would be needed? There seem to be retaining clips on the bulbous piece where it attaches to the hose, but I'm having a tough time manipulating them from my angle. Now, I can reach one bolt at the bottom of that black box if I were to want to remove it. Do I want to remove it? And if so, please don't tell me that the intake manifold must be removed in order to unbolt it...

Oh, and the manual finds absolutely nothing when I do a search for PCV...useless ElsaWin...

EDIT: I wanted to also add that in looking for the fuel filter, I pulled apart all the air intake ducting. I separated all the pieces out. It was all covered in grease inside, all the way down the line, both of the hot air and cold air ducting. I found that inside the junction piece which connects the exhaust-heated intake to the cold outside air intake, there is some sort of a plastic butterfly valve on a spring, which seems to actuate to direct either hot air or cold air into the intake. There's a button with a spring and I can push the button to make that door open or close. When I put tension on the spring, it closes the door to outside air and instead allows hot air. If I release the spring, it reverts back to closing off the hot air and allowing cold air in. My question is, what controls that spring during normal operation? I couldn't seem to find any system which would control the actuation of the valve.

Also, I verified all injectors are working fine. After swapping spark plugs around and having a play with it all, I've decided that the only real issue is that number 2 is getting oil in the combustion chamber and fouling the plug. So now It seems some oil is actually getting in all the cylinders but no 2 is by far the worst; bad enough to stop spark from happening on that plug. I'm hoping that a clean of the PCV system might help on this score. Any advice?

Edited 14 April, 201313 yr by Roritor

Bump. Any advice on how to remove and clean the PCV? Or Crankcase Breather Valve? Or whatever else VAG has decided to call it?