vacuum leak

[kaborex]

I have a 2.0 ltr passat 04 plate and have noticed a leak coming from the vacuum pipes. Ordered the parts but have now realised the leak has spread to other parts in the engine. see the pictures.

Are these fairly easy to change as DIY (Have removed and cleaned throttle body before successfully), or are there things I should be watching out for or better still is the advice to take it to a garage?

[martin1810]

Sorry to sound confused but how can you leak from a vacuum pipe. When the vacuum pipes are leaking, air leaks in and reduces the vacuum. Nothing leaks out. Do you mean you have pressure tested the pipes ? Some of the pipes you highlight are not vacuum pipes.

[kaborex]

you are right. Some of them are not vacuum pipes. However there is some substance around all of these pipes which looks like oil!!!.

The vacuum pipes did have an air leak and I have bought the complete set. Not sure if the leak is oil or fuel. Sorry I am not a mechanic so I am a little confused myself and probably not doing a good job of explaining this.

[kaborex]

This picture shows the vacuum pipe set sold to me by VW and as you can see there some sort of liquid that has leaked. Not sure how or where it comes from?

[martin1810]

Pull the vacuum pipe off the turbo actuator and blow in it. If you can't blow then the leaks are fixed. Oil mist leaking from other points is normal and doesn't mean you have a fault.

[kaborex]

Ok. Will do that. Thanks for your help.

[kaborex]

Replaced the vacuum pipe today. 30minute job. The only thing to watch out for is make sure you have about 4 jubilee clips as the ones used by VW can only be used once. ie when you remove the old pipe, you cannot reuse the clips.

The vauum pipe had a massive 3inch split but was not visible as it was underneath.

Also be careful when putting in the new pipe. The rubber part of it is fine, but there is a plastic part to it that can easily break if force is applied to it while attempting to fit the rubber pipes.

I had to unscrew the water expansion tank just to get a bit more room to work but that was easy. On a scale of one to ten (ten being the hardest) I would rate this job as 4. Hardest part was trying to remove the old clips fitted by VW.

Good luck to anyone attempting this. Car idles perfectly now. Next time you have idling issues I suggest that a torn vacuum pipe be high on your list of suspects. As I said before, looking at it from above all seems fine, but on the underside there was a massive split in the pipe.