Anyone had this before?

[col_s]

I opened up the bonnet yesterday and noticed something odd. Two of the hoses going into the 4-way junction at the front of the engine (4.5) were detached.

Looking closer it appears that the cross connector had snapped on opposite sides. It looks like either the connector has corroded or it was metal fatigue. It's weird because it does not look like it would be under much stress.

Is this common? Does anyone know what the purpose of these hoses are? one of them ends up at the bottom of one of the air boxes, meeting up with what I think is the crankcase breather.

I'm guessing that this is to feed excess gasses back into the engine so should not have caused any major problems by outletting to the engine bay.

[RichardP]

The only 4-way connector I've seen is a white plastic one connecting air hoses. Is this what you mean? I snapped mine when changing the starter motor - I guess they get brittle with age. I couldn't find one at my local motor factors so had to go to TMS - about £3.

Richard

[col_s]

RichardP said:

The only 4-way connector I've seen is a white plastic one connecting air hoses. Is this what you mean? I snapped mine when changing the starter motor - I guess they get brittle with age. I couldn't find one at my local motor factors so had to go to TMS - about £3. Richard

Yep, upon closer inspection it is indeed plastic. It had disintegrated so much it was hard to tell what it was made of. So not much of a surprise that it didn't survive very long, sitting directly above the engine...

Thanks for your help.