Air Chamber/Relief Silencer safe to remove?
 

First off, I've searched. Every result was an idle adjustment thread. You know, the 5346 of those we get a week.

The white plastic air muffler under the passenger's headlight, you can remove that, correct? It's an output of the combustion system I guess... I think relating to the VDI? Do I follow this rubber hose all the way to the block and just rip it off and that's the end of it? It's open now so I'm guessing I don't have to cap it off or anything.

Will idle be effected or anything? Significantly more engine noise? Or is it really that pointless?

Just looking for a little bit of reassurance I guess.

Yeah you can rip it out.
I cut off a small 90deg section of hose, and attached it to the ACV angled down. Just so it blows the air down and out. Prob not necessary, but eh...
-a

Whats it do?

it wont affect the way your car runs in anyway, but it does make a god-aweful sound at high rpms.. at least thats what happened when i had mine off briefly

Only if you're removed the ACV. Otherwise your strange noises will come from the engine bay courtesy of the air pump, since the silencer is there to quieten the relief path.

The "output of the combustion system" is the exhaust system... ;)

Only vaguely related, but nothing to do with it's operation.

No, you leave it alone unless you remove the ACV. When you do remove it, the hose will be left hanging in the air and you'll know it can be removed.

All this is easily found in the Factory Service Manual. If you don't have the FSM, click here and download it in PDF format for free.

I don't have an air pump, so I'm guessing the noise will be ok. I checked the FSM and it didn't mention anything about this equipment being important to the car's runability.

Lol, I wasn't sure if "exhaust" would have been a correct term.

So you can still remove this even if you still have the ACV, it will just be loud? I'll drive it around and see how it sounds.

Thanks everybody!

/thread.

Do you have an ACV but not an air pump? Whats that all about? With the air pump on and that silencer removed, your car will sound like a middle school trumpet player. Definately not classy. It is a bit of work to get to, especially for the virtually null weight and eyesore reduction.

You're right, since without an air pump there'll be no noise. ;)

Note that without an air pump the ACV is useless and might as well be removed also.

I want to be able to put the air pump on if I need to pass emmissions so I have the split air pipe still hooked up (for visual inspection) and the ACV is just capped. That way theoretically I can bolt up the air pump, pass, and than unbolt it and recap the ACV.

If this opening makes noise while the air pump is on it will only be for 15 minutes every 12 months :). Does this sound practical to everybody?