Car driven with no air intake...
Discussion
I noticed my car was idling quite rough driving home yesterday. It was idling a bit higher than normal, then drop to nearly stalling and then shoot back up again, etc.
Anyway, I pulled over, opened the bonnet and found the air intake had become loose and was completely disconnected. It was still in the engine bay, just disconnected from the throttle body.
I don't know how long it's been like this. I topped up my washer fluid last week and didn't notice it then, but in theory it could well have been like this a while. On the other hand, it was really obvious when driving it that something wasn't right, so if it had been disconnected for a while, surely I would have noticed sooner?
Anyways, that's beside the point. The air intake is reconnected and the idle settled back down immediately. The car seems fine now.
Obviously, I'm concerned that I may have in some way damaged the engine from running it without an air filter for an unknown amount of time. What the best thing to do at this point?
A quick google suggests mixing injector cleaner in with the fuel, oil change, etc. Anything else?
Anyway, I pulled over, opened the bonnet and found the air intake had become loose and was completely disconnected. It was still in the engine bay, just disconnected from the throttle body.
I don't know how long it's been like this. I topped up my washer fluid last week and didn't notice it then, but in theory it could well have been like this a while. On the other hand, it was really obvious when driving it that something wasn't right, so if it had been disconnected for a while, surely I would have noticed sooner?
Anyways, that's beside the point. The air intake is reconnected and the idle settled back down immediately. The car seems fine now.
Obviously, I'm concerned that I may have in some way damaged the engine from running it without an air filter for an unknown amount of time. What the best thing to do at this point?
A quick google suggests mixing injector cleaner in with the fuel, oil change, etc. Anything else?
TheEnd said:
You'd got filters to take care of that.
There's unlikely to be any damage, and nothing particularly important to do as a matter of urgency.
Just to be clear, there was no filter connected. Well, sort of. There was nothing connected to the throttle body, it was completely open.There's unlikely to be any damage, and nothing particularly important to do as a matter of urgency.
The air intake (and filter) was still otherwise in place, just not connected to the throttle body. So I suppose the air 'was' getting filtered, but just not going directly where it was supposed to.
The rest of the engine bay is so dusty though it's just a bit worrying.
Having thought about it, I was a bit wrong. It hadn't disconnected at the throttle body, but the air filter unit (it's a cone filter) had disconnected from the tubing with the AF..M. (Air flow meter?). So the AFM was still reading the air going into the throttle body, albeit unfiltered air.
So seems like it's the better of the two situations.
I [i]hope/i] it only happened recently. I only noticed yesterday when I was stuck in traffic, and the rough idle was very apparent. Once up to speed it was less (if at all) noticeable. I don't usually drive in heavy traffic so don't really spend much time stopped, so may not have noticed.
Ah well. It's due a service around the end of December, so might just push it up to a bit sooner.
So seems like it's the better of the two situations.
I [i]hope/i] it only happened recently. I only noticed yesterday when I was stuck in traffic, and the rough idle was very apparent. Once up to speed it was less (if at all) noticeable. I don't usually drive in heavy traffic so don't really spend much time stopped, so may not have noticed.
Ah well. It's due a service around the end of December, so might just push it up to a bit sooner.
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