'97 Polo - falling apart

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Tue 8 Jun 2004 16:38
'97 Polo - falling apart - carrie_b
A piece of coiled piping leading into/from the engine of my 1997 VW Polo fell off this morning. It led to a narrow black plastic vent at the left side of the engine.

I know this is probably very basic but does anyone know what it is and also is the car safe to drive home to a mechanic? The car seems to running fine without it.
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Tue 8 Jun 2004 17:09
'97 Polo - falling apart - Kuang
Could that have been the pipe that takes warm air from the manifold and feeds it into the air intake? Was it a corrugated type of pipe, quite lightweight, or something more heavy duty?
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Tue 8 Jun 2004 17:17
'97 Polo - falling apart - Deryck Tintagel
I would guess (like Kuang) that it is the warm air intake from the exhaust manifold and connects to the air filter box.

If so you can get some from Halfords quite cheaply - when you connect it to the car, clamp it only at the air filter end. Just place the other end of the pipe over the exhaust manifold connection. This helps stop the pipe fracturing due to movement of the engine.

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Tue 8 Jun 2004 17:29
'97 Polo - falling apart - carrie_b
That sounds about right! It was a corrugated piece of pipe, lightweight and quite flexible and it does join another vent. It was loosely joined to the centre of the engine (which I'm presuming must be the exhaust manifold box) and moved to join another pipe to the left.

If the prognosis is correct, will driving it home or to the local car shop do any serious damage?
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Tue 8 Jun 2004 17:38
'97 Polo - falling apart - Kuang
You should get away with it just fine - it just supplies warmer air to the engine for different running conditions. You might actually find that it'll clip back on without any trouble (I'm not sure what the fastening mechanism is for the polo - they used to use simple jubilee clips but I imagine it's probably some snazzy twistlock type of thing) but you shouldn't do any damage by leaving it for a day or so.
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Tue 8 Jun 2004 17:40
'97 Polo - falling apart - carrie_b
That buys me some breathing space- Thanks for your help!!
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Wed 9 Jun 2004 00:54
'97 Polo - falling apart - Singer-G
If it is the pipe from the exhaust manifold to the air intake it won't do any damage to run without it indefinately. It may have some detrimental effect on fuel economy in the winter, so I reckon you've got about 3 months to get it sorted.
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