That horrid aluminium air pipe.

[James A]

I also removed the lower part of the two-part exhaust manifold heat shield (Which looked untidy and was rattling like crazy when the car was cold) and the bracket on the chassis rail which holds the pipe itself, the latter for a neater engine bay

[Velorum]

I was thinking about removing the clip at the weekend when I have a poke about in the air box. I hadnt thought about the manifold part - was it easy to remove ie undo some bolts?

[James A]

Four bolts (May be a bit tight, so use a good hexagonal socket on them) hold the shield on, then it's just a case of throwing the lower part away and refitting the upper part, using the same four bolts. The pipe retaining clip is an interference fit onto the inner wing and should just pull off

[Velorum]

Thanks James - thats job no 4 for Saturday morning!

[Alec Dawe]

I have also just found the remains of a bracket for this horrid air pipe attached to the exhaust manifold.
I say remains, cos literally that's all there was left, but that was vibrating as well.
Fell off in me hand Chief, honest!
The engine bay bracket on my car is bolted to the chassis rail, btw.

[James A]

Silly me. I should have known that was the case with the 200, as I had a 240GL once

[Velorum]

I got away from work early today which gave me an opportunity to investigate matters in the airbox. You were spot on Morsing - the flap was stuck open! I have now removed the whole assembly and blocked up the hole.

I had less luck with the manifold bracket though, the bolts are well and truly rusted on. I tried to remove them with a socket/rachet and rounded of the first one. I stopped at that point and decided to leave well alone. At least the clip lower down for the pipe came off easily.

[radiomark]

just taken the pipe off this morning.going for a test drive later because some dick has fitted the wrong air filter,so a quick walk to the parts store first.

[radiomark]

after removing the air filter and taking off the plastic tube with two clips that goes to the air mass meter,i noticed that the wire mesh at the entrance to the air mass meter had been damaged by someone.is this likely to cause any long term problems or is it only there to stop people sticking fingers into the meter.

[John Davies]

With the wax actuator on the flap working properly and the feed pipe in good condition this system will decrease engine wear by helping the car warm up quickly all year round - and will provide cool air in winter.

In the years when I sued to keep a log of fuel consumption I reckoned fixing one of these saved me 2 mpg in winter, if stuck on a cool setting. Another 244 I bought had an overheating problem in the summer which went away when I freed off the flap.

On thios car I converted the flap so it could be set manually until I found a good second hand wax actuator in a scrappie. As has been previously said test with a hairdrier.

If you are going to do away with the system just remove the pipe and jam the flap in the cold position - but it will then take you much longer to warm up on a cold winter day..........


Regards

John D