I went to autozone again to see if they would clear the light, but apparently by law they're not allowed to because of state inspections (according to one employee).

Out of curiosity I went to an Advanced Auto parts store out of town and asked if they could see what codes were coming up. Several codes apart of from the misfire came up though it took a while for the obd scanner to work and from the looks of it the scanner wasn't in great shape.

I may let a friend take a look at it this weekend or next week.

 

A few updates:

A mechanic I know checked out the car for free. He cleaned out the MAF (once again) sensor, reset the check engine light, and told me to drive some.

Check engine light came back the next day after driving it for a while. I'll probably ask him to check the amount of air flow going to the MAF to determine if it indeed has gone bad.

In the mean time I ordered a vacuum kit as a bit of an upgrade and prevention of further vacuum leaks. It came in today and I did some minor work.

Removed a couple of things:



I removed the purge valve. Seems to be okay, though I have no way to test it. I have read that there is one way to determine if it has gone bad: tap on it and if carbon deposits come out then it's gone bad.



I "tapped" it and blew some air in it as well.

Examining the car I noticed a couple of things. No cabin filter:



Previous owner either removed it or some mechanic removed it...was never replaced...not at all important right now...they're over $30.

Any idea what this if for? There was nothing plugged into it. Doesn't really seem to go anywhere on the inside.



Anyways there's still much I have left to do. I didn't have much time today. I'll get to it and post back.

 

I got the P0442 code last week. Turned it off and it came back after 200 miles. Replacing gas cap today to start with. What happened with your code? Did you ever find out where the leak was? Please update us.

 

Sorry, but I've been out of the country and didn't see your message until today.

I still have the code. It's a tricky code, because it's hard to tell where the leak is coming from unless you have the right tools and a good scanner (stay away from universal scanners). I don't remember if I mentioned this, but I had a smoke test done and it was "supposed" to find the leak, but the mechanic I took it to never did find it. Instead they replaced a hose that looked torn and reset the code, but about a week later it came back. I live in the suburbs and the mechanics around here aren't very reliable so I really haven't bothered to get it checked again. I did, however, do some minor repairs and replaced most of the vacuum hoses myself with a vacuum kit.

Based on some research I did, I came to a couple of conclusions, but nothing that was truly set in stone. It would require replacing some parts (though with uncertainty) such as the purge valve or the carbon canister (If I'm not mistaken...it's been a while) located above the front right wheel (passenger's side). Like I mentioned before though I've been out of the country and have not really done much work on it since, but if I ever do get around to fixing it you'll be the first to know here.

Let me know if you get it fixed as well.

 

I fixed mine a couple of weeks ago and the light is still off. I ended up changing the pcv valve and gromet and the hose that connected it to the the engine. The hose had a crack in it and was falling apart and tore very easily. There was a lot of gunk and oil in the hoses and the pcv was all gunked up with oil and residue as well.

 

Well if the light ever comes back on let me know.

I cleaned the PCV at both ends because some oil deposits were going into the intake, but at some point I'll have replace I guess. I didn't remove it for fear it would break. I've read some posts where people have tried to remove it and accidentally dropped pieces of it or debris where the grommet is located. Hopefully it might remove the code for me just like you.

Which hose do you mean? The long plastic hose that connects to the end of PCV and is stiff (shown a bit in the first page of this thread)? How much did you spend on parts and where (out of curiousity)?

 

how do i check the vacuum leaks racerx002? any info? i need step-by-step instructions please help me.. thanks..
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jetta parts | -tammy beede-