Secondary Air Shutoff Valve Rebuild
 

Secondary Air Shutoff Valve Rebuild:
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Failure of this valve's gasket will lead to a failed secondary air pump. This happens because the failed valve gasket allows hot, moist exhaust gas to flow backwards into the secondary air pump. The pump motor will rust and seize.

This DIY shows you how to replace the failed sealing gasket in the valve.

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Tools and Parts:
• Dremel with cut off wheel
• Approx 2" diameter hose clamp
• Rubber sheet gasket (In plumbing section of my local home improvement store). Not sure how thick it was, but about 1/16". I got two, roughly 6"x6" sheets in the package. Enough to make at least 8 gaskets.
• Mechanic's pick

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Total Cost:
• Roughly $5
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Procedure:

This is a pretty simple (and crude) DIY, but it absolutely works. I don't know how long the new rubber gasket will last, but redoing this even once a year for a couple bucks is better than $80 for a new valve. I no longer own this car so I don't know how it's holding up.

I'm writing this about one year after I did the work, so it's going mostly off memory and my photos. I apologize in advice for any errors or unclear procedures.

Using the cut-off wheel, cut a slit in the clamping ring that holds the two halves of the valve together. Carefully pry the ring off.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...8/sav/sav1.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...8/sav/sav2.jpg

While it's not visible in the photo below (it has been removed already) there is a rubber gasket that gets squeezed buy the vacuum powered section/cap of the valve (the black round thing in the center of the valve).

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...8/sav/sav3.jpg

We need to remove that old gasket. I clamped the protrusion on the valve cap in a vice and then pulled the valve body away by hand. Using a pick, remove the old gasket.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...8/sav/sav4.jpg

This is what was left of my gasket. It did not tear coming out.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...8/sav/sav5.jpg

Using the flat sheet of gasketing rubber, you are going to make a replica of the old gasket. If the old gasket is too badly destroyed, you will need to estimate the new gasket's O.D. by measuring where the new gasket will sit.

You can see the three "tabs" in the inner ring of the gasket. The stock gasket has these tabs and they slide into a little lip in the valve to keep it in place. Make this reasonably accurate, but it's not rocket science.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...8/sav/sav6.jpg

Using the vice and pick again, reinstall the gasket you just made. You will need to do some poking around, but it's pretty easy to get it into place.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...8/sav/sav7.jpg

Now's a good time to test the valve. Wash off the air pump side of the valve and suck and blow into it. Make sure no air is leaking past the gasket. I also sucked on the vacuum nipple and activated the clamping valve. Make sure it operates and reseals. If not, your valve failure might be an actual failure of the vacuum powered valve itself and not the gasket.

Reintall the old clamping ring and further secure it with a hose clamp. Using a hammer, tap and round the hose clamp band so it cannot slip off.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2...8/sav/sav8.jpg

Reinstall the valve on the car but do not attach the secondary air pump hose or the vacuum line. Start the engine and make sure there is no exhaust air blowing backwards. (A good way to test you exisiting valve!) If the engine was cold, quickly attach the vacuum hose as vacuum pressure should be activate shortly after start on a cold engine. Once the valve opens, you should now have exhaust air blowing back. Wait for the the vaccum air to stop again (or pull the vacuum hose) to make sure the valve closes and seals again properly.

** Note: I'm sure there's a better choice in gasket material out there, but this is a super cheap, easy to obtain solution. **

This is an awesome solution, i was looking for this for a long time.. Probably, i will do the job in this weekend and will definitely come back with the questions :D Thank you very much!

Secondary Air Shutoff Valve
 

Hi to all, I got a 318 ti 96. With a rough idle problem and lost fuel efficiency, I had changed most of the air houses, ECV valve, idle control valve, MAF sensor, checked for air leaks and nothing, I had read several articles that suggest changing the secondary Air Shutoff Valve, but I can not find this valve in my car, I have the diagrams showing the valve in the car but nothing, does anybody have any suggestions what the problem might be and is there some 318 ti’s that do no have this Air Shutoff Valve? Any light please.

Early '96 models didn't come with the secondary air system.

any suggestions why this rough idling?

Did you solve your problem? I have same thing here for 99 318ti, but no solution.

secondary air valve
 

The idle roughness has been fixed, but the fuel consumption not, the MAF was not working properly eve thought it was fairly new, (it was an after market one), I got the Bosh one (original) and the roughness stopped, the fuel consumption dropped it varies from 27.6 to 27.0 when I was getting 29.5 or so.
Also I replaced the computer and tranny computer relays, because I started getting tranny issues, with codes 07-1A-1B (peake’s code reader), which are related to fuel trim. So fuel filter was replaced, fuel injector cleaned, fuel hose checked, but nothing was getting the engine roughness fixed, until I started doing some more test with the MAF, and indeed that was the issued.
There is a trend on the MAF issues and how to tested