HALP! My car is pissing me off!

[Quik325ix]

So my car just turned 194k today and in celebration of that, it decided to do something weird. I noticed a hissing coming from under the hood which would indicate a vacuum leak...but its idle is all fucked up and the check engine light comes on occasionally at idle. When i rev it up to listen to the hiss, there is a weird kind of rattle maybe coming from the intake manifold area. Could i have slipped an intake manifold gasket? PLLLLLEASE help me because i need to drive to class every day and i dont know if its safe to drive....all ideas welcome...please respond asap...thanks guys

[equate975]

Spray some carb cleaner around vacuum and intake areas. When it stutters you found the leak.

[Quik325ix]

is it safe to drive for another couple days?

[Mike325]

It may be ok to drive. It all depends if you can get to class with it or not. Just make sure you can drive it ok with out it about to stall or anything. If you feel it is ok to drive, then you should be ok. Just pay close attention to it.

[Quik325ix]

any ideas about the weird noise under the manifold? could it be the gasket fluttering around or something maybe?

[PiercedE30]

Spray some carb cleaner around vacuum and intake areas. When it stutters you found the leak.

[apexede30]

<noob advice>Check that freaking oil pipe thing that connects to the manifold. Might have popped out. True story. </noob advice.>

[///Mayhew]

The carb cleaner is prob your best bet, but a car that old and that many miles your hoses are prob dry roted. Shake stuff around spay carb cleaner and just look really good, it most likely one thats hard to see and get to.

[delatlanta1281]

I had the exact same thing happen to me from what you are saying.
When I replaced my Intake man. a gasket ended up blowing out about 100 miles later. It caused a MAJOR vac. leak and the check engine light would flutter. I replaced the gaskets, making sure they did not get crimped again and everything was fine. The check light stayed on for a bit, but it went off eventually.
My advice,
Buy some CRC carb cleaner (not the cheap auto zone crap.). While your engine is running spray it through the four holes at the top of the intake manifold. Then spary up into the bottom of the runners into the head. If you douse the runners your engine should stumble. Have you pulled the code from your CEL yet?
It sounds like the same thing I went through, slight hissing that got worse until my cel came on. When I took off the intake manifold the second time it was easy to see where the problem was.


Oh and what was the last thing you worked on?

[Quik325ix]

consequently...i think the last engine service i had done was the intake manifold gasket... my mechanic is about 90 miles away....do you think it would be alright to drive it on over there?

[CorvallisBMW]

I had the exact same problem: hissing and rough idle. I sprayed carb cleaner at the hiss, the idle jumped up. So I prelaced the intake gasket and now it runs smooth as buttah. Easy fix.

[dark89e30]

There is a vacuum line that connects to the bottom of the throttle body and goes to the purge sol. under the intake plenum. It has a crapy design that is very prone to failure. The fix is a foot long piece of fuel line. I believe it needs 5/16 line. If its not already fuel line, it should be.

[Quik325ix]

and the diagnostic from the dealer says....










intake manifold gasket....i just replaced that fucker too. Thanks guys for all your help!