Greetings to all, I am new here so please be kind.

My wife owns a 1999 Blazer with about 100k on it. It is a 4 wheel drive and has most the comfort featurs. The other day, she said there was a strange sound coming from under the hood, like something was hitting something. Well, that is not always good, so I checked it out. A hose has run into the fan blades and got chopped up pretty bad. It was not wet, so I knew it was not a radiator hose and anything that has to do with coolant, but could not figure out where it went. I took off the skid plate and found that the hose ran into what looked like a valve on the passenger side under the radiator. I could not see where it ran into the engine. I took it to my mechanic and he said it was a cold air recovery hose, or something like that, and it had been discontinued. He said that it really did not go anywhere and that it was still sucking air in and not to worry about it. I found you guys and just wondered if I should take his advice or not. Any help on this would be great. Thanks a bunch.

 

The hose is an air intake for your emissions pump. It'd probably be a good idea to wrap a bit of duct tape around the damaged area just in case it got a hole in it. They have a problem with water ingestion. There should be a small hole in the plastic shroud about halfway up, a zip holds it up.

 

Thanks for the reply. The hose is shredded, so the mechanic cut the damaged end off and just let it be. He said it would be fine and is still taking in air. I cannot see where it goes in the motor, but it seems to end under the radiator on a valve like bell looking thing. Based on what I have told you, do you think it is OK to run it the way it is? Should I just block it off altogether so no moisture gets into it? Do you have any schematic to make sure we are talking about the same thing? I am a bit of a weekend warrior and have done my share of working on older cars, but have little to no experience with newer cars.

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it.

 

Don't block it off. You'll get a check engine light and possibly take out the AIR pump due to lack of flow. That hose is the intake for an electric pump that puts air into your exhaust for the catalytic converter. Leaving the hose short like it is isn't the best idea either. To fix it you'd have to take the plastic splash pan off the front of the truck, the hose goes up the passenger side of the radiator shroud. You can use heater hose to add on. At the top of it put a 90° elbow facing the fan shroud just below the seam where the two halves of the shroud bolt together. The idea of it is to not have a simple straight hose going down so water can't get into it (rain and road splash). Water shortens the life of the pump.

 

Ron,

Thanks so much for the info. So if I am reading this right, the hose does not go into the motor at all? It just runs into the valve under the splash pan and up the side of the radiator? So if I can get a hose that matches the diameter and some way of hooking it up to the existing hose, zip tie it to the radiator shroud and put a 90 degree angle on the top I am good to go? Sorry to be so stupid, but I just want to make sure I understand.

Thanks again for the help.

 

The replacement hose from GM (there is a TSB on this) has a 90* turn molded into the top of it with a slash cut end. If it were me, I would put a oiled element type mini filter on it to keep junk out and you would definitely be good to go.

 

I just had alot of problems with this pump for emissions and ses light. After i did a little research you should go to your local napa and get a 4 foot setion of the same diameter hose and a clamp and re-run the hose up next to the battery or intake. The pump has a lot of history of getting water and garbage into it and locking up. Its and easy fix for only 5 or 7 bucks. I reccomend after the bs i went through replacing the pump that costs 118 new at napa.