Ecotec engine hose

[andy-xr]

Neighbour asked me to take a look at her car yesterday, said she'd had an oil warning light.

From what I saw, there was a split pipe that'd covered the engine in oil and it was pissing out.

It's this one:



My first thought is that's a symptom of something else, probably a head gasket or rings if there's enough crankcase pressure to blow a pipe to pieces. Or are they just a st design? I'm not really up on my VX's to be honest

[Krikkit]

That's the oil breather hose - if that's pissing oil out all over the bay it'll be a piston ring or head gasket issue causing the oil to pressurise.

[anonymous-user]

That might be the fattest breather hose I've ever seen on a car! Is there much pressure/gas puffing out of it when the engine is running? I'd have thought enough excess pressure to burst that hose would cause untold other problems before it got to that point, so it's maybe just a st hose?

[mini me]

Neither am I, but thats just a crankcase breather hose. There shouldnt be too much in the way of pressure to blow it open, but hoses can perish especially where oil and combustion chemicals are involved.

It may just be old and knackered. If the pressure is very high in the crankcase,its usually a sign that the piston rings or head gasket is leaking.

How is the oil level? and what does the oil look like?

[andy-xr]

Mostly looks like tarmac, as that's where most of it is

I'll just tell her to pick up a new hose and take it to the dealer to sort out, I've found getting involved in other people's car repairs can lead to pointing the finger if things dont work out as well as they'd hoped!

[Brigand]

Might be off the mark here, but I'm sure there was a thread in here about another owner of a Ford with the Ecotec engine who was having issues, and it came down to a split hose IIRC. Turned out to be a fairly common fault with these due to the high pressure the engine was running at - I may have not remembered all of it though, but this thread rang a bell along those lines.

[Monty Python]

Brigand said:

Might be off the mark here, but I'm sure there was a thread in here about another owner of a Ford with the Ecotec engine who was having issues, and it came down to a split hose IIRC. Turned out to be a fairly common fault with these due to the high pressure the engine was running at - I may have not remembered all of it though, but this thread rang a bell along those lines.

I thought Ecotec engines were only found in Vauxhalls...

[Brigand]

Monty Python said:

I thought Ecotec engines were only found in Vauxhalls...

That'll be me not remembering things then! Disregard my post, it was about the Ecoboost, not Ecotec engines