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I had a mishap with my serpentine belt last Friday (made a post about it). I did notice one of the vacuum lines got yanked out by the belt. I replaced that when I put the new belt on. I drove it yesterday with no problems. Today, the check engine light came on after driving almost 90 miles. When I got home, I checked the codes with my VCDS and it was consistently throwing P224 and P2205. I was able to check the two vacuum lines that connect under the air intake (see pic). I figured it was a problem with the one that came out, but when I pulled it, I heard a vacuum whoosh release. I took two pictures but you can't see the vacuum line under the circled one. That one is tight at the points I can get to. There is not enough room to get a good look without taking the front off again. I dealt with this one a 3.2 and it was a cracked vacuum line across the front. This has to be vacuum related and the belt must have hit something else when it came off.. I also checked measuring blocks 142 and 144 and the values for runner flap position did not change as engine speed changed. Before I take the front end off again, I was hoping someone could point me to a vacuum line diagram for the front of a 4.2 from 2008 with a timing chain.
Fixed up washer fluid tubing Vacuum tubes. Too hard to reach without removing the front. This rod popped loose. Vacuum tubes for the intake manifold flaps
Dove in and took the front off today to figure out what happened. Only took 30 minutes to get the front off this time. Then took 15 seconds to see the problem. The rod on the passenger side that connects to the flap actuator had popped loose. It looks like I can get a small c-clip to go into the groove and hold it in place. I put a velcro wrap around it for now since that was all I had on hand. I snapped a few pics of the vacuum setup in case anyone was interested. Also snapped a pic of the washer fluid fix I did last time. The plastic where it reduces in size was brittle and broke. I was able to use a brass barb fitting/reducer and some clear plastic to fix that part up.
Took 45 minutes to get it all back together. The 10mm nuts on the inner fender were easier this time. I need to take it back off and clean everything. I have no idea where the PO used to drive, but there is fine dirt everywhere in the engine bay.
MAde it work and then the check engine light came on again. damn rod is going to keep popping off. I ordered a set of various size small mm c clips. One of them should fit (1.5, 2,2.5,3,4,5,6 mm are all included). Worst case, I'll get some really thin wire and wrap it in the groove on the shaft. What a pain.
Floral wire holding things together With a 4mm c-clip in place. Hope it holds.
Finally made a more permanent fix for this problem and wanted to pass it on in case it ever helped anyone else. I had been using floral wire to hold the rod in place. It was the only I could find that was thin enough to fit in the groove. I ordered a c-clip kit from amazon that had c-clips in sizes from 3 mm on up. I had to take the whole front end off again to get enough room to get my hand in there to get the c-clip on. In the end, it took a 4 mm c-clip. HEre are some pics of the process. The only good thing is I can now get the front end off in under 30 minutes. Takes a little longer to get it back together. So at least it's less of a mystery now.
Your exact problem (rod popping loose off the flap actuator) happened to me on my 3.2 on the passenger's side. I discovered that when I removed the lower intakes for carbon cleaning so I know what you are talking about. The setup on your 4.2 seems different.
I don't understand why you remove your front bumper cover though. Is it to put the front carrier in service position?
The vacuum lines you pictured are running so close to the fan. Is that their normal placement or are these custom replacement ones?
It is a really tight fit without taking the front off. I could kind of get a couple fingers in but there is not enough room to get my hand in to manuever things. In order to make room, you have to put it in service position which requires removing the bumper cover. Once you remove the bumper cover, then you remove the bumper (4 big bolts and 1 little nut each side). One you get the rest off, you can tilt the whole radiator assembly back far enough to get your hands in there.
I'm guessing the c-lip broke when the serpentine belt hit it when the tensioner worked loose. Now that I know how to take it all apart, it makes maintenance in the front area so much easier.
Makes sense. What about the vacuum lines? Are they supposed to hang in there like that? Maybe the genuine ones broke and these are some sort of homemade replacements?
The vacuum lines definitely looked a little odd to me but I have no other reference. They are actually hard lines and lay against the fan support when everything is in it's place. I owned threee 3.2 A6's but I never had to do anything requiring taking off the front end so I can't really compare the amount of space compared to the 4.2. Here are a couple of pics. There really isn't much room between the engine and radiator. Not enough room to get a hand down there.
05-07-2019, 03:58 PM
2008 A6 4.2 codes P2004 and P2005
