1.8 freelander, identify this little black box!

Hi everyone, got a problem with my 1.8 freelander. Lumpy idle at around 1250rpm, white exhaust on idle, vibration felt throughout entire car while idling.

After being told it could be a split hose i check the ones from the injection system and when wiggling one i could hear a slight hiss and the engine rpm would change when moving the hose. Turns out the connector at one end had split and half broken off from the small plastic box it was attached to.

The problem i'm having is i can't find out what the thing is called to get it replaced! Its the hose that runs from the top left (when facing the car from the front) of the injection system and it's a black rigid plastic hose of about 5-6mm diameter. It runs round the back of the engine and behind the air filter and connects into the small black box. The box is about an inch wide, 2 inches long and half an inch deep. Another hose then goes from this box to the ECM and it just hooks onto the side of the ECM bracket.

Any help would be awesome! :clap2:

Its the little black box floating on the hose at the bottom of this picture!

I think you will find it is a vacuum switch what for I do not know though

Its properly weird, the pipe snapped off completely when i took the box off the side of the ECM so i've had to shave the lugs back a bit and glue it all back together. Are these hoses supposed to be air tight though? The other one spins pretty easily and sound like air is escaping from the hose joints. Shall i seal them both up and see if the car runs better?

Rang around a few specialists as well and nobody, landrover included, knew what the hell the black box was for haha

Fixed the pipe and connector, but it didn't fix the engine not running smooth at idle Any other ideas on what to check?

I had the head gasket, water pump, timing belt etc sorted last week and it was running fine when i picked it up on saturday morning. Idled at 900rpm, was nice and quiet, no white smoke from exhaust and no lumpy idle. Now today it's running badly again. 36 hours of problem free driving!

Might be the idle control valve, I'm having a few issues with mine revving a bit erratically on idle and I think it is causing the problem.
This is it with a fat pipe going to the throttle body and two torx screws at the top.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/MGJohn/Rover 45 W868 JRF/Rover45Various004.jpg
Some people suggest pulling the pipe off the throttle body and squirting WD40 down it. I tried this and it helped a bit but I think it might need replaced or at least properly cleaned.
NB there are (on mine anyway) two more screws at the bottom which are very hard to reach. I've ordered these to try and get them out.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201249234447?_trksid=p2060778.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

The box on the pipe is a kind of catch tank. It helps keep fuel out of the ECU's vacuum transducer. All pipes to the ECU must be air tight. If not the ECU can't read engine load correctly, causing symptoms like you have.

Nodge68 said:

The box on the pipe is a kind of catch tank. It helps keep fuel out of the ECU's vacuum transducer. All pipes to the ECU must be air tight. If not the ECU can't read engine load correctly, causing symptoms like you have.

Click to expand...

That's great, thanks for replying. It's been running fine since i glued it so hopefully it'll behave from now on