What's this thing? Where's this hose go?

[James614]

So, my Touring Wagon has been inconsistent in it's performance since I got it, though I haven't driven it much, so I wasn't sure if it was a persistent problem. But now I'm sure it is, sometimes it'll fly like a bat out of hell, other times it feels like doesn't even have a turbo. I'm guessing the issue is a vacuum leak, since it also drinks gas (12mpg), and because I found a suspiciously detached hose on this device:


Click here if pic doesn't show


Click here if pic doesn't show


You can't see it in the pics (18 degrees, feels like it'll snap off before I could bend it into view), but the outlined hose appears to be snapped off of something at the end, but I took apart my intake and can't find anything that it attaches to! For now I siliconed it shut, but it didn't make a difference. What the heck is that little device, and where the heck does that bottom hose go? It actually appears that there's a nipple snapped off in the hose... bad news?

[vrg3]

Take a look at the sticky thread in the Intake forum.

Your wastegate control solenoid bleed hose snapped off of the intake resonator. It's a common failure. It's bad form to have any hose open to the atmosphere on your car, but this one is not a very big deal. You can plug the hole on the resonator and stick a filter in the end of the hose and it will work fine.

Or, you can replace the fitting on the resonator. I drilled the remnants of the fitting out with an 11/32" drill and then just barely tapped it with an 1/8" NPT tap. I then threaded in a 1/8" MPT to 1/4" hose barb adapter; it was black nylon so it even looked like it belonged there.

[James614]

Huh, turns out that the hole on the resonator side has already been filled in then, cause I checked it out again and there's a spot were it looks like something used to be there, but it's just epoxied or patched with resin.

What exactly does the bleed hose do? I'm guessing it's not the reason my car is acting up (darn!), guess it's off to the parts store for all new vacuum hoses .......

[vrg3]

The boost control solenoid bleeds air away from the wastegate actuator into that hose. It normally bleeds it back into the intake upstream of the compressor, but bleeding it out to the atmosphere instead isn't a big deal.

You can look for vacuum leaks with starting fluid.

[mcbrat]

So, my Touring Wagon has been inconsistent in it's performance since I got it, though I haven't driven it much, so I wasn't sure if it was a persistent problem. But now I'm sure it is, sometimes it'll fly like a bat out of hell, other times it feels like doesn't even have a turbo.

I had similar problems... my O2 sensor was bad. I unplugged it, and immediately started running better....