Hey everyone,

Took my throttle body off yesterday to give it a good clean, and thought while I'm there I'd shine a torch down into the inlet manifold in my hunt for a noticeably loud air leak... and discovered quite a few huge great cracks running right through it! That'll be the source of my air leak then. I've got a new inlet manifold ordered from eBay for a fairly reasonable price.

My (probably stupid) question is do I have to remove the fuel rail/injectors in order to remove the inlet manifold or can they stay where they are?

Guess I have to depressurize the fuel system if I do, and I guessed I would remove the fuse for the fuel pump and run the car for a few seconds to do this - but as I have the throttle body off is this safe? I don't mind doing it at some point as I'm gonna replace the fuel filter anyway... but not sure if it's safe (or even, possible!) to run the car for a few seconds without the throttle body on there. If I can get away with not doing it now, I'll do this more safely when inlet and throttle body are back on.

Thanks for your help in advance,

Andy

theres not much pressure in them , crack open the fuel line with a rag near it to soak up the small spill

On the AUD the injectors are separate from the inlet manifold so you don't need to disturb them when you replace the manifold, just the 8ea 6mm hex bolts and the rubber "O" rings on the mating surface, the servo vacuum takeoff, MAP sensor ( good time to clean it with some spray carb cleaner) and the dipstick tube is also bolted to the manifold

As above, they are separate, but you may need to move the fuel rail to get a bit more access.

If you do then just undo the 2 bolts holding the rail itself in place then gently pull it upwards. You don't have to release the fuel lines or injectors, they just slot into the opening in head. This of course may not be necessary.

Also, a very common place for air leaks is the pipes from the throttle body to the one way valve then on to the breather pipe. They are made of a material that dissolves itself when oil touches it. The perfect material for an oil breather pipe I think :). So well worth replacing with a pipe that is oil friendly. As you say the manifold is cracked, then chances are that is the problem.

No need to touch the fuel rail, I had my inlet off the other week and it comes off without any probs

Thanks for your help!

Yeah one of the shorter vacuum hoses attached to the throttle body was also BADLY cracked (looks like it has been previously 'fixed' with insulating tape to cover some old cracks as well...) so I've got some generic vacuum hose coming from ebay that should hopefully do the trick ( http://r.ebay.com/aaP0DJ in 8mm and 10mm as wasn't sure on the exact measurement as it looked stretched in places...).

Does the vacuum hose I ordered look okay? It does say 'item is not suitable for use with fuel or oil' which I take to mean that it's not designed to carry it all day but that the odd splash should hopefully be okay?

The vacuum hose to the servo also had the bad end cracks as per the common fault with these cars, but out of the many inlet manifolds on eBay I ordered the one which is pictured with this hose attached... so with a bit of luck I'll get a replacement instead of using the repair kit I ordered from eBay (ebay seem to be doing well from me this week!!).

Edited 2 December, 201411 yr by goldielocks

Ooh and one last question... the gasket between the throttle body and the inlet manifold looks to be in okay condition - no cracks and still quite flexible as well, can I safely reuse this?

I can't seem to find this anywhere on eBay or EuroCarParts so not sure what I'm gonna do if I can't...

Edited 2 December, 201411 yr by goldielocks

I used 8 mm silicon hose from ebay ( £5 for 1 metre) and replaced all the lines from the TB to carbon canister & the vacuum holding valve to the main breather,and had a few inches left over :)

I stand corrected :) I do like to take things apart though, so I couldn't resist taking it off.

The gasket should be okay to reuse as long as there aren't chunks missing from the edge.

They do sell them but is something like £15-£18 for that single round seal. I personally would use a tiny amount of gasket sealant round the seal and round the mounting face of the throttle body. And spend the £15 on bear/fuel/ very very cheap women etc :)