This just keeps getting better . . . NOT!  This morning I fired up my van to take my
daughter to school and to go to work.  After running fine for about five minutes, the
engine died on me on Main St.  It died just like it did before when it was raining,
but this time there was no rain and it would not start back up.  AAAAAARRRRGGHGHGH!!!
This makes the third time my van has left me stranded.  Thank God for AAA Plus . . .
Had the van towed to the dealer where I was told that they MIGHT be able to get to it
by Thursday . . .  What could I have done that would make it die like this?  I checked
everything, the air intake stuff where I had put in a new K&N air filter, the idle
stabilizer valve, the oxygen sensor . . . I did not take the taillight off and check
the idle control unit.  Everything seemed to be in order . . .

This time I insisted that the dealer replace the breather hose, the vacuum hose to the
fuel pressure regulator and, incidentally, the hose between the coolant expansion tank
and the overflow tank.  We'll see what happens . . .

What an aggravating situation,
Marc Perdue

Marc Perdue wrote:

> Also, there's no part number for this hose in the ETKA 5 CD.  It just says shorten
> it to 1xx (I forgot the actual number) mm.  What does that mean?
>
> Marc Perdue wrote:
>
> > I've identified a couple of the components that the squishy and cracked hose
> > connects to.  It goes from the elbow between the mass airflow sensor and the
> > intake air distributor to the oil breather.  What does the oil breather do?
> > Does this piece of information eliminate this hose as a possible idle culprit?
> >
> > Thanks again,
> > Marc Perdue, trying to get to the bottom of this mystery . . .
> >