Hello again cartalk community my other post has been resolved but another has occurred, this afternoon my younger brother was getting ready to leave when he notice something have fallen off from the car. He called my grandmother and I out and we saw this hanging off from under the left turn signal. When i was examining this i saw the clamps has broken off and the outer shell was cracked. We didn’t know how long the part has fallen off but it took some damage. We are going to call AAA to have them tow the car off tomorrow to our mechanic and was wondering if anyone could tell me more about this part. I do not know if that was the cause of the car acting up or something else entirely
I apologize with some of the photos being blurry I was taking the photos using my phone and also and old digital camera
That’s the vacuum reservoir for the vent system.
That reservoir holds a reserve of vacuum so when climbing a hill or accelerating so the blend door doesn’t change position.
Tester
Looks like an evap cannister to me.
That the problem I’ve been having. The stuttering doesn’t begin until i reach a hill and then the jolting and stuttering begins. should I not move the car and have a tow truck tow it or is it alright to drive? and do you know how much this will cost if the part needs to be replace?
You can drive the car.
Just try not to accelerate quickly, and avoid hills if possible.
Tester
Unless the reservoir is broken and leaking it won’t affect the performance of the engine. The purpose of the reservoir is to maintain a vacuum supply to the HVAC controls during periods of low engine vacuum.
From what I see, there’s a small leak in the reservoir.
If I were to save you money, I would clean that area with brake parts cleaner. Then take a sensor safe silicone sealer and seal the leak. Then with wire ties, find a way to reattach the reservoir back under the vehicle.
Tester
Good advice above. OP, a little background info in case you are interested. The car’s designers needed a method to create a force to move the vent doors for the heating and AC functions. Some cars use individual electric motors for that, run from the battery. But for your car they instead decided to use the engine’s own power, in the form of the vacuum in the intake manifold. That’s a source of force than can move a vent door. The problem with this method is that the intake manifold vacuum only works during idle and low speed driving. So they had to store a charge of this vacuum somewhere, to use during high speeds and accelerations. That’s what that part is for. If the hoses to it just got clamped off, the symptom would be the vent doors wouldn’t work when going uphill. But if that gadget leaked, besides the vent doors not working, the symptom could also be a poorly running engine. Best of luck.
@GeorgeSanJose I did not know of that I learned something new about my car. When my family mechanic fixed the part my car doesn’t jolt and has a smooth ride driving uphill and at high acceleration. Now the check engine light is off finally. Another question with that part being connected to the engine is that safe?
No way to tell over the internet. If it is properly connected, properly positioned, properly supported, and 100% functional I’d expect no problems. But like I say, no way to tell from here, so suggest to rely on your local trusted mechanic for safety concerns.