How-To: Charge pipe clean - up.
Overview:
This is going to be a quick how-to for cleaning the charge pipe that is likely to leak boost over time. It gets dirt and stone inside. You may also want to remove the driver's side one and clean it, but that one was not leaking for me. The passenger side was bad and definitely causing a boost leak on my vehicle.
Tools / Parts Required
- A flat head screw driver.
- A pair of needle nose pliers.
- A T-30 Torx bit/screwdriver.
- A ratchet for the Torx bit.
- Some paper towels or something to clean the gasket and tube.
- Some silicone grease.
Procedure:
First, you will need to jack the vehicle up and set it on some jack stands.
Once that is done, you will need to remove the cover underneath the front bumper. There will be multiple T-30 Torx screws and a few push clips. You can use the needle nose pliers to pull the center out on those, then the clips come out. Once those are all removed you pull the cover towards the rear of the vehicle and it comes off.
Looking from underneath you can see both of the charge pipes on either side of the radiator. The passenger side leaks, the driver side might also. I only cleaned the passenger side, but the driver side comes off in a similar fashion.
Passenger Side:
Driver Side:
You pull this metal clip off. Reaching on top of the pipe, you can feel the ends of the clip. I pulled on the side towards the back of the vehicle, then pulled it around and pulled the clips forwards around everything. It is a cramped area, but you can do it. Once the clip is off it pops off, but I suggest doing that after removing the end above.
Then go above and loosen the clamp holding it with the screwdriver. (I FORGOT TO GET THIS PHOTO, but you can see where it goes and connects here from underneath. It is easier to remove the clamp from above though.)
Pop this end off now and squeeze it through here.
From there, pull it down and out towards the ground. You may be able to pull it up and out, but I found it easier to pull it through the bottom.
Once it is removed, look it over and see all the stuff inside of it. Take the o-ring out.
MAKE SURE YOU LOOK HOW THE O-RING IS POSITIONED, if you install this incorrectly it will cause a bad boost leak. It is made to seal more under boost I was told. It is shaped like a V, the point faces towards the opening your are looking through. Clean everything thoroughly and put some silicone grease on the o-ring and such.
Then follow the removal in reverse to reinstall it all.
This is for the passenger side only. As my driver side was not leaking, I did not touch it. The driver side should be very similar though. I do hope this helps some people!