What does the air intake pipe do on the left hand side ?

[sternal]

Morning kind folk

What exactly does the air intake pipe do on the left hand side apart from the obvious which is intake air ?

Mine is almost complete I'm going to repair it with some ducting hose, will I notice a massive difference if its all connected up as it should be ?

I imagine most are defunct so does that mean a lotof engines are not running as they should ?

Many thanks

[pirate-pete]

Not quite with you there...

I could understand if you wondered what the right hand one does but your left hand one should have a snorkel connected to the air filter to bring in nice cool clean air from outside. By the sound of it you have holes in yours so tape it up and all should be as how the van was designed. You might notice it being quieter.

I can't comment too much more as I have a tdi with a foam air filter sitting in the void in the left hand side. I don't like this setup and am collecting the bits to try and use the snorkel again with a JX filter if I can get it to fit. If the foam air filter or pipework touches the side of the van I used to get resonance through the furniture at about 60mph. That is cured by suspending the filter so it does not touch anything. It is possible you might get some resonance if there are leaks but I don't know. Other downside is mine will be sucking warm air from engine bay and engines like to have cool air for better performance. So yes - tape up any leaks and let us know if you notice any difference in noise or performance.

[sternal]

left hand one should have a snorkel connected to the air filter

any difference in noise...are you joking its a 1.6 N/A diesel !

talking about this one yes it has a few holes nothing serious though, if its not been performing as it should do when I fix it then hopefully it will run like saliva !

[pirate-pete]

Ha ha - never had the joy of driving a 16na so I'm spoilt

My tdi is not quiet but cutting down the resonance by moving the air filter helped a lot otherwise had the k it ch en units and hob buzzing crazy at cruising speed. Have bigger 205/14 tyres on now to slow the engine down so the resonance comes in at higher speeds now. Still think the most noise is from induction roar rather than exhaust or general engine sounds but I'm no expert. Still have to shout at passengers in the back to hear me.

[colinthefox]

any difference in noise...are you joking its a 1.6 N/A diesel !

I know I bang on about this at every opportunity, but this air pipe (when properly connected) makes a massive difference to engine noise. Much of the noise from a N/A diesel comes from the unthrottled air intakes. I tried several different setups, but the original snorkel was by far the quietest. The other critical component was the plastic bellows. You can get suitable silicone air hose to replace this bit from Auto Silicone Hoses online.