This hose broke from the airbox - what is it?

[Albert27]

As title really, this broke off today while working on the car (pictures attached). What is it? Is it important? I tried superglue to no avail. Any thoughts.......

[Stoney871]

It appears to be a crankcase breather hose.

If the part the hose is attached to is broken off then you will either need a new hose assembly (about £140) or find a failproof option to reattach the hose attachment.

 

[Albert27]

14 minutes ago, Stoney871 said:

It appears to be a crankcase breather hose.

If the part the hose is attached to is broken off then you will either need a new hose assembly (about £140) or find a failproof option to reattach the hose attachment.

 

Thanks for that.  Am i ok to drive it and leave it for while?

[Albert27]

I've been driving the car since - done about 40 miles and no issues.  Came to it this morning and Engine malfunction has come up with Glow plug DTC P0380-61 Glow plug circuit.  I'm wondering if this is pure coincidence?  Could this broken hose have anything to do with the glow plugs?

[TomsFocus]

The crank breather is that large 90 degree bend further along towards the turbo...  

I don't have that small pipe on a 110...and it doesn't appear to be on the Microcat picture either?   

Where does the other end go?  

It won't be anything to do with the glowplugs though so that's a coincidence.

 

[Albert27]

7 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

The crank breather is that large 90 degree bend further along towards the turbo...  

I don't have that small pipe on a 110...and it doesn't appear to be on the Microcat picture either?   

Where does the other end go?  

It won't be anything to do with the glowplugs though so that's a coincidence.

 

Cheers Tom.  All the crankcase breathers i searched didn't look anything like this narrow pipe so think you're spot on. It goes down the back of the engine but can't see exactly where.  It looks like the glow plugs have shown their hand when it comes to my other fault!  Just in two minds to get my local garage to do it or have a go myself......worried about snapping one!  Is there any way to bypass limp mode with a fault like this so i can drive the car normally?

[TomsFocus]

Thin pipes on the intake are usually for vacuum...but diesels don't produce decent vacuum so have a vac pump run by the engine to power the brake servo etc.

It might be something to do with the turbo wastegate control.  If that was the case I'd expect to see an overboost code pop up though.

 

With the glowplugs...it's up to you really, they don't often snap without warning, so just take it steady and let them soak in plusgas for a while first.  If one gets tight, just wind it back in a bit and try again.  There's nothing stopping a garage tech snapping them either...just that you've spent a lot more money for them to do it lol.

[Albert27]

29 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Thin pipes on the intake are usually for vacuum...but diesels don't produce decent vacuum so have a vac pump run by the engine to power the brake servo etc.

It might be something to do with the turbo wastegate control.  If that was the case I'd expect to see an overboost code pop up though.

 

With the glowplugs...it's up to you really, they don't often snap without warning, so just take it steady and let them soak in plusgas for a while first.  If one gets tight, just wind it back in a bit and try again.  There's nothing stopping a garage tech snapping them either...just that you've spent a lot more money for them to do it lol.

lol true!  Just a quick question in relation to the glowplugs.  I know you didn't fully remove the EGR cooler, but if i decided to do so i would need to drain the coolant first and I'd put the car on ramps.  I'd then want to take the car off the ramps and put it on the flat to reach the back a bit better.  My question is, with the coolant drained, is it ok to start the engine and move the car for a short period just to reposition it off the ramps?  

[TomsFocus]

Yeah you can drive briefly without coolant.  However, you'll never drain it all so starting it with the cooler off is likely to blow coolant around the bulkhead and onto your driveway lol.   

If you really want to drain some of the coolant and remove the cooler, just jack up the passenger side front corner, drain some of the coolant, then refit the drain plug and lower the jack again.  No need to start the engine at all then.  

If you want to drain as much as possible to change it, you could lower the car over a bowl with the bleed screw still open to level it off until empty.  Then just jack up to refit the drain screw.

[Tdci-Peter]

1 hour ago, Albert27 said:

All the crankcase breathers i searched didn't look anything like this narrow pipe so think you're spot on. It goes down the back of the engine but can't see exactly where.

I suspect that pipe is the vent line to the turbo vacuum solenoid, which is hidden right down the back of the engine. If so, it goes to the airbox outlet so that dirt & water do not get sucked into the vacuum system.

If it is just the vent return, then it will have no effect on the turbo if that hose is open to atmosphere, at least until some dirt gets sucked in.

The other problem with that break is that the air inlet is below atmospheric, so dirt can also get drawn into the engine air intake system.

One solution would be to block the hole in the air box, and fit some simple filter over the little pipe to the solenoid.

Of course, it may have some other purpose altogether, I can not trace the pipe, but I know the turbo solenoid has three pipes, that must go somewhere! I think it is usually the 90PS version that has the vacuum turbo.

[Albert27]

Great replies guys, thanks!  I've used some poxy putty (i think that's what it's called) to put it back on so hopefully that will be sufficient to hold it in place. I'll let you know the outcome on the long saga of the glow plugs....!

[south_bound]

My glow plugs went a couple of years back, but without bringing up any codes so took a while to diagnose it.  I drove in limp mode for 1000 miles as I needed to do the long trip and it was a bank holiday weekend so no chance of getting it into a garage to get it looked at, no damage done but had to adopt a very different driving style!  You could try to reset the codes to see if it disables the limp mode but I guess it would just come back on.  Don't know about changing them, I got that done at the garage at the same time as having the issue diagnosed and getting the EGR looked at.  I'm told its about an hours work though.

[Albert27]

8 hours ago, south_bound said:

My glow plugs went a couple of years back, but without bringing up any codes so took a while to diagnose it.  I drove in limp mode for 1000 miles as I needed to do the long trip and it was a bank holiday weekend so no chance of getting it into a garage to get it looked at, no damage done but had to adopt a very different driving style!  You could try to reset the codes to see if it disables the limp mode but I guess it would just come back on.  Don't know about changing them, I got that done at the garage at the same time as having the issue diagnosed and getting the EGR looked at.  I'm told its about an hours work though.

I have a long journey to do later in the week which is one of the reasons I've booked it in to the garage rather than tackle it myself.  Don't want to mess anything up!  I've managed 100 miles in limp mode but on a few uphills it verges on embarrassing with cars on your bumper..........not sure i'd fancy 1000 miles of that 

[south_bound]

2 hours ago, Albert27 said:

I have a long journey to do later in the week which is one of the reasons I've booked it in to the garage rather than tackle it myself.  Don't want to mess anything up!  I've managed 100 miles in limp mode but on a few uphills it verges on embarrassing with cars on your bumper..........not sure i'd fancy 1000 miles of that 

You're right, uphill on the motorway in 3rd gear with lorries right up your a**e can get embarrassing (and dangerous), and they don't know you can't go any faster!  The other one was pulling away at roundabouts, you have to leave so much space you never get out and everyone behind gets impatient.  Best to get it sorted out if you can.