Beetlejuice is Back

Clicking back through my posts (have I really had this blog since 2006?), this post would technically be Beetlejuice, Part 3.  'Beetlejuice' posts are those in which I write about cracking open my own Beetle and getting to know the juice that's under the shiny fire-engine-red paint.  Plainspeak: these posts are those about repair work I've done on my own car.

Since it's been awhile, I'll instead state that Beetlejuice is back, and I have a couple pending projects with my Volkswagen Baby that will make great how-to posts here.

Today I bring you code P0411.  Secondary air injection (AIR) system incorrect flow detected.

This is an engine code that blows when your engine is not getting all air flow in order to breathe right.  This may be exclusive to Volkswagen and how they build their engines, but VWs have these 'secondary air' lines which are typically smaller, thinner vacuum lines leading in and out of your engine block.  On VWs, secondary air is primarily used when you start your car up and the engine is cold.  While your main vacuum pump is just coming to life and the whole car is trying to warm up, these seconary air lines pull additional air from the atmosphere around the car, and more quickly send this air to the engine to heat it up faster, thus bringing the engine up to optimal operating temperature, faster.

Lo and behold, my Beetle blew this engine code one night after coming home from work.  Panicked, I wanted to figure this out and not bring her to a 'stealership' to get serviced.  I researched, read, checked the internet, and consulted my trusty VW online forums where anthills of fellow VW lovers flourish.  And, I figured it out!  The hoses were blown open and needed to be replaced.

On the Beetle, the original vacuum lines are chinsy cloth-braided tiny hoses that become very brittle over the years and over changing weather elements.  Unfortunately, Baby Girl went the same way as so many other Beetles have, and her hoses, too, became junk.

In the engine room, here are the hoses I had to change:

 

Here is what I found when I pulled my hoses off.  Yup, it was time for some fresh arteries.

 Look at how much the ends are blown open!  Time, weather, and air pressure from within have done this.  I am impressed these lines were even staying set to their ports on the engine.  

It's surprising, but even these wee little frayed ends can bring a world of hurt onto your engine, cause it to make some funny chugging noises, and work harder than it needs to.  Look what you can weed out and discover!

Time to replace the lines.  When it comes to the Beetle, I am all about going the extra 'di$tan¢e' to do it well and to do it right.  After all, I am investing in this car and restoring it as I go along.  That is just a few steps past "patching it up."  

I strayed away from replacing with cloth-braided vacuum lines again, as they will only eventually fail the same way in the future.  I ordered some high-speed silicone vacuum lines instead.  Same 4 mm inner diameter as the cloth lines.

Although, to take it one step further, of COURSE I ordered the silicone hoses to be bright red -- to match the color of my car!  Now, when you pop the hood on Baby Girl, you'll see her innards match her outer beauty.  Check it out, just a nice touch:

 

Tools you'll need to replace your vacuum lines: scissors, needlenose pliers, a mirror (optional), and replacement hose -- shown in red, here.

The after shot!  Look how the subtle new vacuum lines match the exterior color of the Beetle.  Just a classy touch.  :-)

Actually installing the hose was much easier than I thought.  The replacement hose came in a 3-ft coil, and a household pair of scissors was used to chop whatever segment off the coil that I wanted.  I made sure to replace the hoses one at a time, for fear of having too many disconnected ports on the engine all at once, and therefore forgetting which end of the hose went where.  I did good!


I was beaming with pride once I figured out the big bad engine all by myself, and have now conquered the world of vacuum lines.  Or so I thought.

Upon the first test drive with the car after putting in all of these new red lines, the car chugged even worse, to the point that it was misfiring.  She blew another engine code, stating that my #2 and #3 cylinders were misfiring.  I also had a scare with pulling the car out of the garage and having to mash my foot and brake pedal all the way to the floor before the car would even think about stopping.  YIKES, what was going on?!

Back to the drawing board.  Turns out, I missed a vacuum pump tube that was just as bad off as my cloth-braided lines.  This tube, too, needed to be replaced.  Made of junk plastic, in an engine room that gets very very hot, it fell prey to the engine heat that puts plastic at the susceptibility of stretching, cooling, and then becoming brittle.  See the culprit, here:

This vacuum tube runs from your master power cylinder into the backside of your engine, at the vacuum pump.  It is quite seriously smack-dab on the back of your engine, like, stick your hand between it and the firewall -- so I could not get a good picture.  (This means I'll be skipping all the steps explaining the repair for this, shortly.)

With this tear, it lost its perfect seal and connection to the master power -- therefore, I had a loss in braking power.

Nothing a quick trip to Auto Zone couldn't fix.  I got my own replacement tubing by requesting a $2 chunk of 1/2" dia fuel feed hose be cut off for me.  One $0.97 pack of spring clamps later, and I had Baby Girl all hooked back up and running:

I fired up the car for my second test drive.  Drumroll please: to my glee, there was no chugging this time.  No misfiring.  No loss of braking.  I used my OBDII reader and cleared the engine codes so my 'check engine light' went out on my dash --- and then, took the car for a drive to see if I could get the codes to fire and the light to come back on again.  (Volkswagens have this self-learning transmission and engine where you have to drive about 45 - 50 miles for the computer to refresh and see if the codes blow again.)

50 miles later with the music blaring and speeding on some fun back-country Ohio county highways, we were ready to roll and engine-code FREE!  I did it!!

And now, I have a loose understanding of air flow and vacuums in an engine.



Coming soon: another Beetlejuice post, where I roll through a multi-weekend project.  My buddy Snake and I performed a complete engine tune-up on the Beetle!!  This one probably trumps all previous projects I've attempted on the Beetle, as now my most extensive repair, to-date.

The Beetle is humming right along now with a new lease on life, so stay tuned and I'll show you some pictures and ramble some more!