I just wanted to see if anyone here has an extra check valve? The one that goes to the pressure tank in front of the intake manifold. I called the mazda dealer but they have to order it and it wouldn't be here for like a week or 2.
Is there any other place to get a check valve? Can I use anything else? I'm going on a trip soon and I kinda need one. Not having boost sucks.

 

you can use one off a corvette, it's 9 bucks and your chevrolet dealer should have one. I've heard you can get them from any autoparts store for like a buck but I haven't seen one myself

 

You can probably pick one up at your closest auto parts store for less than a buck.

 

Max Cooper has used the Help! check valves and has experienced failure with them in a fairly short time. (check his website)

You only have to replace them once every several years anyway, so just pony up and get a decent valve.

If you are in a hurry and need a temporary fix, use one of the Help! valves until you get a good valve.

 

there are 5 different check valves on our cars. Anybody know the difference between these? I priced them at the mazda dealership and they are $30 friggin dollars!

 

From memory, there seem to be 3 different types:

1. The aluminum one that is more of a partial check valve since it just restricts rather than closes the flow in the backwards direction. Surprisingly, this one seems to the the least expensive one from Mazda, and I haven't seen any aftermarket ones that I would use as a replacement for it.

2. The white and green ones seem to be more or less "normal" check valves, and can be replaced with high-quality aftermarket replacements. As rynberg mentioned, I have tried the HELP! ones from the auto parts store and they failed after a few thousand miles -- you could blow through both ways. There are some 3/16" thermo-plastic check valves with Viton diaphragms from mcmaster.com for about $10 that seem up to the task.

3. The black and green ones seem to block flow in one direction (like a normal check valve), but they are pretty hard to blow through in the other direction. I thought mine were just old and perhaps they are filtered and the filter was clogged or something, but people seemed to report that they are pretty hard to blow through even when new. I am not sure if they just have a small orifice inside or if they have dense filters or something. Despite these odd properties, my car seemed to work normally when I replaced one of these with a "nromal" check valve. It was one of the HELP! brand ones and it failed quickly, though. I would give the mcmaster valves a try for replacements here, too, if I was trying to save cash.

-Max

 

Hey Max,

When I replaced my aluminum check valve, the replacement did stop (not just restrict) air flow in the backwards direction.