Part true, but there is more too it.
It contains a rubber flapper valve that is spring loaded.
It is intended to be a one way breather. I have personally dissected five of them,
and found four out of five with a large hole in the flapper.
It is a non serviceable part. In other words, when you go to VW and look it up on
the fish, you will see just the tower and no insides.
 The replacement part is the entire tower. Its not cheep either.

How I disassembled them is removing the round cover piece on top, but I have had
only one come apart without cracking the tower, and with the spring pushing
against this cover its not likely that it can be refastened securely, so don't
take it apart unless you have a NEW one. I don't recommend getting one from the
yard.

With the odds of four out of five with holes in them there is plenty of us that
have this problem. The brake down in my opinion is time and the elements it is
surrounded by ( gas, oil).
I would think oil consumption would be the result of this parts malfunction, not
crankcase pressure because it vents into the intake.

Rob

Dave C wrote:

> on 4/12/2000 6:24 PM, James Shinosky at One88maroon@AOL.COM wrote:
>
> > Anyone on the list has seen inside the oil breather tower? If so what
> > does it look like inside? Does it get clogged easily and can be cleaned? I m
> > determining to solve the oil dipstick popout problem and I am now down to
> > both oil beather tower and the crankcase oil level... (the breathing tubes
> > are fine...)
> > James
> > W88kender
> > Anaheim, Calif
> >
> I have on Vinnie, our '85 1.9L.
> During my January refubish of the cooling system, this was one of the items
> that I sealed an oil leak from. Inside the tower on the 1.9 there is a
> plastic baffle oriented at about a 45� angle. Other than that, there isn't
> anything else in there, just a coating of oil. Pretty simple really. I saw
> nothing that would suggest that it would get clogged, but take it off and
> see. Just get a new o-ring to replace the old one with and use sealant as
> well for a leak free seal.
> Hope this helps,
> Dave C.
> Williamsburg, VA
>            zzzzzzzzz__
>          |E[__] [__]|[_]\\
>          | _DC&SP | _ ||
> * * * =-( )---------( )--=
> '85 GL Westy (His)
> '91 Cabriolet (Hers)