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Okay boys and girls, it's time for another game of "What the hell did I just find loose in my engine bay?" Tonight's guest star is this random L-shaped rubber hose that was laying next to the battery.
I just figured out that the random bolt I found laying in the belly pan would be better employed holding my power steering pump in place, and was patting myself on the back when I noticed this.
Can anyone tell me where it belongs? Or is it that the same gremlin who poked a hole in my heater hose, loosened my power steering pump bolt, and shredded my sway bar bushings dropped it by accident?
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It must be a vent tube from the battery. No? Looks just right, and I've seen a lot of batteries with vent tubes - especially the old liquid acid type - on motorcycles.
Cheers!
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Without my 240 nearby to check, it looks like it may be a vent tube from the PS rack.
I have never seen a vent tube on a battery that went in any of my Volvos. But every motorcycle battery has them.
--
Bob: son's XC70, dtr's '94-940, my 81GL, 83-DL, 89-745(V8) and 98-S90. Also 77-MGB and some old motorcycles.
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Nah, it's definitely a vent tube for the battery. After I found out what it was, I looked at my battery, and it still had the instructions taped to the side on how to use it.
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And finding it missing, they tore my power steering belt enough that it slipped off of the pulley today while driving. That belt was about 1 month old. I had to get a Bando replacement on the way home. WHY DOES NOBODY CARRY THE PROPER SIZE BELT FOR MY CAR!? The foreign parts place had a 9.5 x 835 that was closer than anything else I could find. I guess it will do until I can order a new Contitech.
I have replaced the wee pipe as a peace offering, and I hope the pixies or gremlins or whoever dropped it will leave it car alone for a couple weeks.
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Uncle scorron,
I fell onto the floor while reading this.
Your post, sir, is a million mile an hour riot! =^)
I leave the vent hoses that come with the battery on and route (and even extend) them so, in the event of have a boiling battery (like from overcharge from a futzed up voltage regulator or someone left the battery on the late 1960s model Schumacher battery charger), the nasty owld sulfuric acid stuff does not bother the metal.
Some vehicles come with hosing pre-installed that connects to these battery venting hoses.
Sir, thank you!
Happy RWD Volvo-ing!!!!!
I'd never let a battery come to harm on the owld 1960s Schumacher battery charger. Oh, no, not at all. D'oh! I think it had a vacuum tube as the rectifier.
cheers,
Bassturd "Hazel Dell" MacDuff
--
Celery.
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Yep, definitely a battery vent tube.
Some batteries have 'em, some don't.
Although, I do like the idea that they belong to an engine bay leprechaun.
--
If it needs to be maintained, repaired or replaced on a 1990 240, I've probably done it. '90 240DL, 322,930 miles, will she make it to 400K ?? >>You haven't really worked on a car until you draw blood<< :-}
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Not a personal criticism of your picture (the exposure is very good), but for all who try to show something unknown like that, laying a ruler beside that in the picture would be helpful. I can't tell whether that hose is a heater hose size or a soda straw size.
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Good point, Ken. I don't feel like getting out the floodlights again (which is why the exposure is pretty good) or I would take another photo. I'll remember for next time.
The hose is about 3/8" dia. and 6.5" long.
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Hi.
I've been around car for fifty years, and Volvos for almost forty, and I've never seen a "battery vent hose", either as part of the car or of any battery I've ever seen.
Please, explain more ... is it inside the battery?
By the way, I wish there was some scale provided in the picture -- I don't even know whether that hose is 1 inch in diameter, or 1/8 inch, or whatever.
Thanks.
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And you never bought a new battery in 50 years? I get one every time I get a new battery and just throw it away.
Dan
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Bought more than my share of batteries, but never saw this pipe?
A few have had a little hole in the side, some with a plug (not all, as far as I ever noticed) and a few (like my last Volvo-brand battery) with instruction labels to remove the plug when you start using the battery ... do you mean that this pipe is inside, and somehow popped out?
Just goes to show there's always something new to learn.
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My 2001 S60T5 and my 2001 V70T5 both have them. They are about ΒΌ" OD and they go outside
through a hole in the floor so the battery doesn't vent potentially corrosive vapors
in places where you might not want the corrosion (in the trunk on these 2 cars).
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Oklahoma
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Thanks for the information. My 240's have no such provision, but my daughter's '07 S60 2.5 has a battery, like yours, in the trunk. The next time I'm in L.A., I'll check her car to be sure that the battery is being properly vented as you describe.
Regards
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I would bet batteries in my 5 240's have a vent in them at the one end or the other near the top, all batteries need to vent.
Dan
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I don't know, Dan; my father assured me it was a wee little leprechaun pipe, dropped by the little bastards as they tore things up in the engine bay. I have to say, it makes sense...
I just hope they don't come back looking for it.
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