Yep, my 03 MCS is sounding like a wounded moose in the mornings!

The old vacuum hose issue, where the rubber right angle hose on the top of the block collapses and vibrates with an aweful wailing sound

So I buy the replacement part from the dealer, expecting it to be the short angled rubber piece.

Not so. It's the right angled rubber piece, glued to a long and twisty vacuum pipe that heads down under the intercooler.

Anyone know how to best access the other end of this hose, so I can do a swap out?

What does it connect to?

Any pictures???

Any help much appreciated.

Chris.

 

There is a recall addressing this situation. The fix is simple, it's about a 4 1/2 inch piece of 3/8inch piece of fuel/vacuum line. It connects from the PCV valve on the left of the valve cover (viewed from the front of the engine) to the longer hard grey plastic hose. The dealer can fix this for you for no cost, or you can buy a piece of hose for less than half a buck and install it yourself. No tools are needed.

 

that's just the problem - it's not just the short rubber hose

That part is glued to the 'plastic' vac line, so you can't just remove the easy bit!

you have to replace the whole damn line, and it runs under the intercooler, and down the front of the block somewhere.

That's why I'm asking for assistance.

I have the part, and would like to do it myself, rather than loose the car for a day at the dealers.

Chris.

 

Glued?
This morning GBMINI was at MoP for the JCW "step-up" upgrade - they also replaced this rubber piece.
The tech simply pulled the new rubber piece off the all-in-one piece, and installed it; he commented that the long stiff part is not the problem and does not need to be replaced ...

 

The rubber hose isnt by default 'glued' to the plastic line. The problem with the actual rubber hose is that the oily vapor that flows through it 'attacks' the rubber, making it overly soft, hence the collapsing. In more severe cases I guess, the softened rubber will 'glue' itself to the plastic. This happens in other cars/makes on occasions as well. All you need is to slit the rubber with a utility knife and peel it off (possibly cleaning the plastic bits of adhering rubber as well), then slip the new piece in place.

In my car, it was the opposite. The rubber had softened up along it's entire length and was actually quite loose on both the PCV valve and the plastic line. It had gotten quite mushy.

 

I think CooperB was referring to the REPLACEMENT part having the rubber piece glued to the plastic tube - but as I said above, the MINI tech simply applied force to remove the rubber piece, then installed it on GBMINI ...

 

Well, I must be a weak 'girly man' (thanks Govenator), but I've applied a lot of force to the rubber part, and I cannot get it to part company with the plastic pipe!

I'm thinking it's glued on for good on the new replacement part.....

 

For what it's worth, that same hose was making the dead moose sound on my mcs about 6 or 7 months ago and was fixed by the dealer under warranty. About 2 days ago it came back again. The hose is soft and collapses again. The timing is good though as I have to go in for the recall on the emissions thingy.


Ken

 

Do you have more that 50k miles on your car? I would consider this a premature failure of a part.

 

Just 18,000 for me, so it's under warranty.

I was just trying to avoid the loss of the car for half a day whilst they did a 20 min fix!

Chris.

 

I got a recall from MINI USA yesterday - and it's for this very problem!!

Seems like the deteriorating hose may cause the MCS to fail emissions tests, and as I'm in CA, I have to have the part replaces by MINI before my next registration renewal.

Campaign Number: 04E-A03 - effective on MCS for 02-03

It's is of course FREE

Booked for Tuesday at the local dealer.

Chris.