Lower intercooler coupling pipe

[bspman]

There's a pipe that goes into my intercooler at the bottom and it's loose. 

I've tried to push it back in but it's not going in properly. Looks like this but a lot cleaner as it was recently replaced.

 

 

Any idea how to get it back in? Do I need to loosen something else to get it to fit in?

[dubDEAN]

HAVE YOU REMOVED THE CLIPS FIRST?

[bspman]

I tried after removing the clip and with the clip too.

 

I've been told that you leave the clips in place for this kind of fitting and push it in. It should make a nice click to indicate it's in properly.

 

I'll try again later this afternoon (weather permitting).

 

Are they any bolts on the metal pipe that comes from the engine side to re position it?

Edited 18 August, 2017 by bspman

[Jux]

Is it leaking boost? They do tend to have a bit of movement even when fitted properly. If its clean and you have all your boost then leave it alone

[Silver Bullet]

This happened to me once, giving it the beans overtaking on a d/carriageway, "POP", warning light came on.

All power went and had to slow down. The car wouldnt go above 50mph, got it up on my ramps, took the offending pipe off, got a small swiss file

and filed the 2 barbs so they were nice and angled (giving a positive registration on the spring). Pushed it back in (spring in place), heard a nice

loud click, all good

Edited 18 August, 2017 by Silver Bullet

[bspman]

2 hours ago, Jux said:

Is it leaking boost? They do tend to have a bit of movement even when fitted properly. If its clean and you have all your boost then leave it alone

Definitely leaking as hissing is a lot louder now after getting it partially in. The pipe was properly off before but somehow I still had boost?

 

1 hour ago, Silver Bullet said:

This happened to me once, giving it the beans overtaking on a d/carriageway, "POP", warning light came on.

All power went and had to slow down. The car wouldnt go above 50mph, got it up on my ramps, took the offending pipe off, got a small swiss file

and filed the 2 barbs so they were nice and angled (giving a positive registration on the spring). Pushed it back in (spring in place), heard a nice

loud click, all good

I'll remove the clip first to check it goes without effort. Was unfortunately raining earlier so a bit of a hassle.

 

If it goes in ok, I'll try again with the clip. My issue was I couldn't get movement from the pipe :(

 

Edited 18 August, 2017 by bspman

[Jux]

If its popped off just order a new pipe and clip as the ears the clip goes round on the pipe are probably worn away.

[bspman]

was a brand new pipe. old one had the lugs torn off! Issue is trying to get it in. The weather is looking a bit so so but I'll try and give it another go today.

Edited 19 August, 2017 by bspman

[bspman]

right.. so a follow up:

 

I removed the clip, but it still wouldn't go in.

 

I removed the bumper, indicator, headlight and intercooler (which gave me a chance to clean the outside up a bit).

Ended up removing the small pipe from the turbo side and tried to push it into a removed intercooler.. it was a VERY tight fit (even without clips). 

Once that was in, the rest was a lot easier to do. I had someone help me push the upper intercooler pipe back into the engine side and used a variable mouthed set of pliers/clamp (I don't know the proper name for it) to help fit it properly. 

 

Once sorted I closed everything up and let the engine run for a minute or two, then drove it fairly gently to get the temps up. Gave it a bit of welly and the pipes seem to have held

 

Just concerned about if I put the clips back on properly now.

 

Edited 21 August, 2017 by bspman

[bspman]

Quick follow up - seems as though I managed to mix up the clips. One has "feet" that go in the same direction (the one near the intercooler) and the clip furthest away has feet that go in 2 directions.

 

Came off again. This time symptoms were boost leak at low revs, but no leak at higher revs