Hello. I have a 2000 Buick Park Avenue 3.8L engine and there are some thin, long, black hoses that seem to be connected to a part above my thermostat that just broke and seems to be hissing air or something of the sort(no liquid is coming out) and I was wondering what these hoses are, what are they connected to, where can I buy them and are they easily repaired. They are attached to I believe may engine and whatever the part above my thermostat is by a little black boot with something inside of it. I have pictures attached, any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Simplest way would be to go to a Buick dealership. Ask the guy at the parts counter to step outside and have a look. He’ll look it up on his computer and sell you the correct part on the spot. Or he may have to order it, have it available in a day or two.
It looks like hose for the secondary air system. You should have a check engine light with a DTC of P0410. Simply go to any parts store, take a piece of the hose inside, they will cut you a new piece(s). Then put them in place.
Well I was thinking about doing that but I didnt want to risk anything going wrong by driving it with one of these hoses missing. I have tried to look it up on google but I dont seem to be coming up with anything. The hose is made out of hard plastic and its not flexible, it connects on one side (driver side) above my thermostat (picture 3 and 5) and over my engine about a foot to a curved boot piece as seen in photo 1 and 2. The curved piece was a boot of some sort i think and was pretty dry-rotted and fell apart when touched it but it was connecting the two hoses in photo 1. The remaining part of the boot is sill connected to the round silver piece in photo 1 and 2. There are two hoses that are connected to the boot on the piece above my thermostat and the other one is in pretty bad shape and need to be replaced too. It seems like an easy enough job for me to do, jus connect a couple hoses so any info on what these hoses are called or are for, or if it safe to drive please, your advice is helpful and is greatly appreciated!
@ keith… I have a code reader I will go down and see if i get any thing, but I didnt notice a cel when I started it earlier. I will get back to you…
If it is the secondary air as I suspect, one hose is a vacuum hose, the other is the air hose on the exhaust side. The round thing is the reed valve and there should be a hose from the reed valve to an electric motor/air pump somewhere in the engine compartment.
Ok so I went down there and checked let it run for a min or two and still no CEL, but i did notice when my car was idle-ing the rpms started to bounce around a bit…nothin major but it never done this before, hopefully a symptom of the missing hose. Also the boot shown in picture 3&5 is cracked and pretty worn and has a crack down the center but still has that other hose attached, should I replace the other hose too? And if I drive my car will this cause any other problems like engine overheating, loss of power, stalling, etc? Also thanks for all of your input! Helps alot!
If it is the secondary air, it won’t hurt to drive with it broken, but it may be leaking a little CO into the engine compartment. The secondary air is not checked directly, it checks the output of the O2 sensor for a lean condition, during the warmup. If it doesn’t see it, then it assumes that the secondary air is working, if it is always rich, then it assumes that it is not. Sometimes the system can be down for weeks before the system detects it enough times to set the CEL.
If you put the code reader on, you might see the P0410 code as a pending code.
There was evidence of carbon in one of the hoses that broke. That indicates that exhaust gasses got up into the hoses. If that is the case, the reed valve must be stuck open. It will need to be cleaned or replaced. This can lead to damage in the air pump, and that is expensive because it is dealer only.
That is the vacuum hose for the EVAP purge valve. That hose assembly should be available from your dealer. The hose assembly originally directed vacuum to the EVAP purge solenoid and the fuel pressure regulator (that’s where the other hose at the broken end leads). Some creative use of vacuum hoses and a vacuum “T” available at your local parts store should fix it up if the dealer can’t help you. Your car won’t idle right until this is fixed and should set a fault code for purge flow error but no permanent damage will be done by driving a few miles.
I thank all of you for your help and info on this subject. I took a short trip today and the CEL did end up coming on and my cars idle is pretty rough. I have the dealer ordering the parts for me but I want to make sure that the other hose you see still connected to the boot on whatever part it is on pic 3 doesnt need to be replaced also. And my mechanic is sum 10 miles away…do you think itll be safe to take it there? Thanks again for all the help! Oh and which pic has the EVAP purge valve in it, pic’s 1,2 that little round meta piece, or the piece above my thermostat in pic 5?
I’m fairly certain that the purge valve is that cylindrical thing in the second pic. The green cap is an evap system cap. You can look up the purge valve on an internet parts site to compare with a picture.
When the engine is running, have you put a finger over the hissing hose to see if its a vacuum or pressure? I generally associate hissing with pressure where a vacuum usually whistles. Please read the code and post it here.
The vacuum leak is probably what’s causing your car to idle rough. Until you can replace the bad hoses, you can put a piece of tape over the leaking end, or stick a screw in it to stop the leak. Then your car will at least run better until you can get it fixed.
well it is a vacuum hose due to the fact the part of the hose that was connected to the piece over my thermostat is sucking a hole in my finger…lol and oblivion thanks for the tip… i am taking it to the shop shortly and the tape trick seems to ease the rough idle. Also, @ keith…i accidently erased the code sorry, i know its dumb but it was an accident and the code read something like P01–, cant remember exactly but im getting it fixed today so thanks for the help anyway. Umm, the part is going to cost me 25 dollars and I am going to try to fix it myself because the Buick Dealer wants $165 to change out these hoses. Insane…But I do have another place that only wants $50, thats if I cant do it myself. I want to thanks all of you for your help and info on this subject. I was completely in the dark, now I see the light! Thanks all I will keep you all updated.
Well…aint that some bulll ish…i get the parts and go under my hood, yank on the hoses a lil bit and viola… out they come no tool required. How can a mechanic let alone a dealer mechanic charge you so much ($165) for a 3 min job? Honestly , it took 3 mins to swap these hoses out thats including me fumbling around with my buddy trying to figure out if anything would break if I pulled on it. The top hose came right off, the hoses were connected to some sleeve slid over a metal piece, the bottom was a little trickier but all you have to do is apply pressure on the clip thats on the purge valve for it to release from the valve. After that you connect the news ones up, and done. Even $50 would’ve been too much to pay for this I think and that was the lower price I got from another neighborhood shop. But $165 for a job that only takes 3 min to do and doesnt require a tool in the world is just ridiculous. I swear I need to become a mechanic… i would love to funk people over like that!!! LOL …Either way thank you all for your input ,it really helped. Problem Solved and under $30… I love this website and the people who are generous enough to help out us who are less informed about car our troubles. Thank you all!!! JeroD
There’s more than the 3 min to do the job.
There’s the time to diagnose, get the parts, overhead for rent, insurance etc.