So I noticed that my alarm horn had fell onto a vacuum tube and rubbed a hole in it, the car is leaking vacuum now. It is the tube that goes into the intake and runs underneath the dust cover to the throttle body. There is a canister in between the throttle body and manifold where it connects. It is a hard plastic hose, can I replace this with regular hose? If you know what I am talking about, maybe you could post some pics, cause I could not find any pics of it.

 

You can run heater hose if you want. The canister is a muffler. I should be the top hose in the rubber fitting going into the Throttle body in this pic. It allows air to bypass the throttle body when at idle. The amount of air that is allowed to bypass is controlled by the IAC, Idle Air Control, valve.

 

I believe that is it, Thanks! I will buy some heater hose and clamps and throw it on, who knows how long it has been like this.

How would this effect the overall drive ability?

 

By having a leak in this hose you are allowing unmetered air into the intake. The PCM will see a lean condition at the O2 sensors and compensate by richening up the mix. A big enough leak will set a code. At idle it could stumble and stall or run rough.

JMC

 

how about a really rich smell from the exhaust on first fire up of the day?

 

I belive that hose runs to the PCV valve. I am surprised that you did not get a P0171 and P0174 code. I chased a leak that was pretty small and my CEL came on.

 

The hose in the pic goes to the IAC valve. It serves as an air inlet to the valve so the truck can meter the air entering the engine in order to control the idle. The hose below goes to the driver side cam cover. It is part of the crankcase ventilation system.

JMC