Bypass valve replacement- air horn won't come out
 

Well I was already timid and anxious to do this myself but convinced myself I'm capable and now I think I'm regretting it. :( I'm so close to replacing the bypass valve on my 2005 cooper S, but no matter how much I wiggle and how much pressure I put on the intake tube, the damn air horn on the right side of the supercharger won't come out. I've spent 40 frustrating minutes on trying to pull it out. I'm on step 7 here: https://www.detroittuned.com/content/DT%20BPV%20INS.pdf

Anyone have any tips? Can I use WD-40? Or is that going to cause problems? Holding the rubber piece with a vice grip so it clears it? Anyone who has advice please let me know, this car is my daily; planned to finish today but obviously that didn't happen so I really want to get it done by tomorrow.

Edit: Is there supposed to be two metal clamps on the piece of rubber? One for clamping onto the air horn and one for clamping onto the intake tube? I only have one, but two makes more sense.

To remove mine , I heated it up with a torch for a few seconds actually then pressed down on the intaketube and wiggle at the same time and it will come off.. yes, there is sapose to be 2 clamps

Hmm, so maybe the previous owner was here before for whatever reason and didn't put the second clamp on. Lack of a clamp could be why its such a pain in the ass to get off, the piece of rubber moves around a lot.
Wouldn't a torch melt the plastic? I won't lie that makes me slightly nervous. Do you think a heat gun would work as well?

well ya but don't hold it there that long , I used just one of the handheld butane torches and circled around it for about 10 seconds only which was enough to make it flexible enough to then wobble down the tube. Thankfully my coolant hose kit I bought actually replaced that troublesome thing , which you can easily do too. Just remove it and buy a pice hose from a hardware or auto parts store and swap it out so in the future you don't fight it anymore.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...a9ca2d176b.jpg

Yes the rubber gets hard and brittle over time. I bought a SC servicing kit which came with a silicone replacement

https://www.ebay.com/itm/124241485676 (UK seller, just as an example)

When new are they hard rubber ? Or do they harden like that over time ? Mine was literally so hard it was like a pvc pipe no joke..

Guys, using a heatgun on the rubber worked really well for me! Came right off! Thanks for the advice.

Rubber gets hard over time when exposed to heat & cold cycles.