Nov 11, 2003
I looked into my engine today and basically felt like a total moron. actually, it was after I flipped through my repair manual randomly and found something that was in the repair manual's picture of my engine- but has NEVER been in my engine.
It was/is something called a TAC hot air hose. I looked at the picture for a little bit, trying to figure out if maybe I was looking at it at a funny angle or something (Haynes may be the best detailed repair manual out there, but they're still lacking on clarity of pictures sometimes) but I quickly realized that I wasn't looking at it at a funny angle, whatever "IT" was was simply not there.
I analyzed the situation- and realized several important things.
The TAC air hose has the following important function- with the help of a sensor that measures engine temperature, it closes or opens a "door" leading from the snorkel (the air intake, or the thing that runs to the front of your car and captures outside air...) Into my air-intake housing. When the engine is running cold (read: when the engine has just started AND the outside air is not exactly warm) it keeps the door shut, keeping outside air from coming into the air-intake housing. after the engine warms up, the door lowers, allwoing cool outside air to come into the engine. So basically its purpose is to help the car run more smoothly in cool weather.
Last year I had replaced a similar vacuum hose that led from my right header up into my intake housing, not realizing (I wouldn't have then, anyway) that the reason it doesn't run smoothly in cold weather has little to do with the batteries charge (my previous thought) or any number of other things I had believed. it was actually becasause a part of my car JUST ISN'T THERE!
Now maybe this doesn't seem weird to all of you, I mean, peices of car are removed all the time, and then mostly put back in (this particular peice would have been removed if someone had taken my TBI apart {this is another random fact I learned today- my car isn't port injection or carberated [the two most common ways of fuel feed, i suppose], it's Throttle Body Injected, or TBI for short}) BUT this particular peice had NEVER been there.
I admit- I hadn't noticed its abscence before- but during my youthful forays into my engine (read: before I knew ANYTHING about cars but curiously peeped under the hood) I never saw it.
The hole where the bottom of it should connect to my engine block is empty; and always has been. I have wondered about that hole for ages, and little did I know that it really DOES serve an important purpose.
Now that I know that it's gone, I can replace it. I don't know how much it is, although I will find out. It's a plastic/rubber tube that leads from an exhaust port back up into the air-intake manifold (I'll simply call this AIM from now on, although it actaully has some longer acronym like THERMAC) and it can't be all that expensive. However, if the sensor that controls the "door" is dead... that might put me out thirty bucks or more (tops 60 I hope).
Basically, this would fix (since I found this HUGE carbon deposit on a fuel injector head today that was causing problems- I cleaned it off and Ameile is happier with me) almost ALL of my cold weather problems/cooler weather problems.
At least, this is what I hope. Within the last week, I have found/identified and fixed several small problems with my car, something that is making her run more smoothly almost on a daily basis. Just going under the hood and cleaning things makes me happy; and the thought that it might finally run without some random kick or shudder or death makes me even more happy.
Speaking of cleaning- while cleaning my fuel injectors, I found something on the engine block I didn't even know where was- My VIN number, 14089802 (Vehicle Identification Number)! It was under about a centimeter of engine grit and grease, which concerns me. I haven't really done much until very recently on that car- and the way it has been treated bothers me. Grandad didn't know enough to service it himself and he was too old, but some TRUSTWORTHY mechanic should have taken better care of it! it runs- but things that make it run BETTER were/are missing. and it's dirty.
This makes me think of something else that bothered me: where did the missing tube go? could it just have "dissapeared?" I personally have two theories, the first being more reasonable and the second being more sinister.
The first theory is this. at some point, someone took apart my AIM and TBI to clean and or maintain it. when they put the AIM back on, they simply forgot to put two hoses back in (one of which I replaced last year).
The second theory is possible, but it pisses me off. Some mechanic simply took the "unnecessary" parts out (I say this because the cars' behavior is not GREATLY EFFECTED by the absence of these hoses) and put them in another car. This is possible, and certainly has happened before. It makes me angry, though. If some mechanic did this they did it to an old man who probably rarely looked under the hood and wouldn't have noticed a couple of missing hoses anyway. This just reinforces my desire to learn more about cars- enough to do the work myself. Heck, even if it isn't a sinister plot, it still goes to show a mechanic's carelessness, and that reinforces my want to learn to do this on my own.
Luckily, I can vouch for the fact that it wasn't our "family's" mechanic Ricky, because I remember both of those hoses not being there AND I remember him pointing the smaller one out to me... but SOMEONE did, and that person should be dragged out into the street and tattoed with engine oil.
Man. I wrote alot about cars. Well, If you're not intrested....
Demented nightmares
Fade away fast as sleep falls
A curtain revealed.
It was/is something called a TAC hot air hose. I looked at the picture for a little bit, trying to figure out if maybe I was looking at it at a funny angle or something (Haynes may be the best detailed repair manual out there, but they're still lacking on clarity of pictures sometimes) but I quickly realized that I wasn't looking at it at a funny angle, whatever "IT" was was simply not there.
I analyzed the situation- and realized several important things.
The TAC air hose has the following important function- with the help of a sensor that measures engine temperature, it closes or opens a "door" leading from the snorkel (the air intake, or the thing that runs to the front of your car and captures outside air...) Into my air-intake housing. When the engine is running cold (read: when the engine has just started AND the outside air is not exactly warm) it keeps the door shut, keeping outside air from coming into the air-intake housing. after the engine warms up, the door lowers, allwoing cool outside air to come into the engine. So basically its purpose is to help the car run more smoothly in cool weather.
Last year I had replaced a similar vacuum hose that led from my right header up into my intake housing, not realizing (I wouldn't have then, anyway) that the reason it doesn't run smoothly in cold weather has little to do with the batteries charge (my previous thought) or any number of other things I had believed. it was actually becasause a part of my car JUST ISN'T THERE!
Now maybe this doesn't seem weird to all of you, I mean, peices of car are removed all the time, and then mostly put back in (this particular peice would have been removed if someone had taken my TBI apart {this is another random fact I learned today- my car isn't port injection or carberated [the two most common ways of fuel feed, i suppose], it's Throttle Body Injected, or TBI for short}) BUT this particular peice had NEVER been there.
I admit- I hadn't noticed its abscence before- but during my youthful forays into my engine (read: before I knew ANYTHING about cars but curiously peeped under the hood) I never saw it.
The hole where the bottom of it should connect to my engine block is empty; and always has been. I have wondered about that hole for ages, and little did I know that it really DOES serve an important purpose.
Now that I know that it's gone, I can replace it. I don't know how much it is, although I will find out. It's a plastic/rubber tube that leads from an exhaust port back up into the air-intake manifold (I'll simply call this AIM from now on, although it actaully has some longer acronym like THERMAC) and it can't be all that expensive. However, if the sensor that controls the "door" is dead... that might put me out thirty bucks or more (tops 60 I hope).
Basically, this would fix (since I found this HUGE carbon deposit on a fuel injector head today that was causing problems- I cleaned it off and Ameile is happier with me) almost ALL of my cold weather problems/cooler weather problems.
At least, this is what I hope. Within the last week, I have found/identified and fixed several small problems with my car, something that is making her run more smoothly almost on a daily basis. Just going under the hood and cleaning things makes me happy; and the thought that it might finally run without some random kick or shudder or death makes me even more happy.
Speaking of cleaning- while cleaning my fuel injectors, I found something on the engine block I didn't even know where was- My VIN number, 14089802 (Vehicle Identification Number)! It was under about a centimeter of engine grit and grease, which concerns me. I haven't really done much until very recently on that car- and the way it has been treated bothers me. Grandad didn't know enough to service it himself and he was too old, but some TRUSTWORTHY mechanic should have taken better care of it! it runs- but things that make it run BETTER were/are missing. and it's dirty.
This makes me think of something else that bothered me: where did the missing tube go? could it just have "dissapeared?" I personally have two theories, the first being more reasonable and the second being more sinister.
The first theory is this. at some point, someone took apart my AIM and TBI to clean and or maintain it. when they put the AIM back on, they simply forgot to put two hoses back in (one of which I replaced last year).
The second theory is possible, but it pisses me off. Some mechanic simply took the "unnecessary" parts out (I say this because the cars' behavior is not GREATLY EFFECTED by the absence of these hoses) and put them in another car. This is possible, and certainly has happened before. It makes me angry, though. If some mechanic did this they did it to an old man who probably rarely looked under the hood and wouldn't have noticed a couple of missing hoses anyway. This just reinforces my desire to learn more about cars- enough to do the work myself. Heck, even if it isn't a sinister plot, it still goes to show a mechanic's carelessness, and that reinforces my want to learn to do this on my own.
Luckily, I can vouch for the fact that it wasn't our "family's" mechanic Ricky, because I remember both of those hoses not being there AND I remember him pointing the smaller one out to me... but SOMEONE did, and that person should be dragged out into the street and tattoed with engine oil.
Man. I wrote alot about cars. Well, If you're not intrested....
Demented nightmares
Fade away fast as sleep falls
A curtain revealed.
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