01 Expedition vacuum line to grommet help

[Winanthony94]

Hello all,
So I have a 01 Expedition and when I put freon in my truck I'm pretty sure I knocked my vacuum hose out because before my air blew through the vents and now it doesn't now. I looked at the vacuum line was free and it looks like it goes into the grommet on the firewall. My question is, are there any tips or tricks on how to get it back in? I tried pushing it in with no luck. I called a car shop and they said that gotta remove the whole dash. I don't see how, but idk maybe you do. I will attach images of my (disgusting) grommet and a picture of what my vacuum assembly looks like (picture from Google but looks the same)

Thanks for your time and help.

 

[JamaicaJoe]

Aren't those lines made of hard plastic like nylon? If so it is probably cracked where it passed through the grommet. So you need to extend a new line through the grommet end to end. If you can pull a few inches of the line from the grommet into the engine compartment , you might be able to splice. But the end pieces which are rubber are probably fragile and could break.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

 

[Winanthony94]

Ahh okay makes sense on why it wasn't going through the "hole" I guess looking at the picture it does indeed look like a hose inside the grommet. I suppose this is a lot more PITA than I thought.

 

[Petesexpy]

Just remember - the shop is required to "do it right." all you have to do it is to make it work. See if you can use a screw to screw it into the hose stuck in this grommet and pull it out. OR find a thin solid connector tube and then screw it into the hose in the grommet. Finally, can you try pulling the grommet out?

 

[Winanthony94]

Just remember - the shop is required to "do it right." all you have to do it is to make it work. See if you can use a screw to screw it into the hose stuck in this grommet and pull it out. OR find a thin solid connector tube and then screw it into the hose in the grommet. Finally, can you try pulling the grommet out?

True, true. I'll try the screw trick, maybe ill have some luck. And I tried a little yesterday, it had tension and didn't want to pull it out all the way since I read the grommet acts as a connector too? I can't remember where I read that but thats what I read. I basically got it out about 1/2inch and then the little line that I thought was a hole slide with the grommet too

 

[JVinOlathe]

Just remember - the shop is required to "do it right." all you have to do it is to make it work. See if you can use a screw to screw it into the hose stuck in this grommet and pull it out. OR find a thin solid connector tube and then screw it into the hose in the grommet. Finally, can you try pulling the grommet out?

Absolutely. My Jaguar X-Type has a leak on the oil pan gasket. Dealer indicated the front clip had to be removed since there is one bolt that is impossible to reach; quoted $3K for the job and the Tech. "advisor told me (off the record) to just place apiece of carpet in the garage under it and not worry about it. Other owners in the Jag Forum figure out that you can drill a hole through a floating aluminum flange and get a socket through it, better yet, they figure out that you can take a small ignition wrench and bend it and you can reach the bolt without any other disassembly. 2-3 hour tops at any shop and $30 in parts instead of $3K at the dealer.
User Forums often have much better and more practical solutions than dealerships which have no desire to save you time or more importantly, money.

 

[hobbyguy]

Fyi, These trucks have these hard lines everywhere for vacume use. The one you are dealing with is behind the battery. It will get your air direction selector working again but, there are at least 4 more of these plastic lines throughout the truck. With age they crack and leak and thats not so hard to deal with. The 1/8th inch to 5/32 rubber elbows are the issue. These never last more than 4 months on my truck. The heat they are exposed to is the problem so I found myself purchasing two boxes (5 per box)every 3 months just to keep up. I tried many different types of those elbows never finding one that lasted. They always crack creatinga leak and then a vacume code. Until i replaced all the vacume lines with rubber hoses. Its not too hard but it will help your headaches as these trucks are getting older and need something somewhere to be replaced. Having to revisit the same issue gets to becomes aggravating. My two sense.

 

[Winanthony94]

Fyi, These trucks have these hard lines everywhere for vacume use. The one you are dealing with is behind the battery. It will get your air direction selector working again but, there are at least 4 more of these plastic lines throughout the truck. With age they crack and leak and thats not so hard to deal with. The 1/8th inch to 5/32 rubber elbows are the issue. These never last more than 4 months on my truck. The heat they are exposed to is the problem so I found myself purchasing two boxes (5 per box)every 3 months just to keep up. I tried many different types of those elbows never finding one that lasted. They always crack creatinga leak and then a vacume code. Until i replaced all the vacume lines with rubber hoses. Its not too hard but it will help your headaches as these trucks are getting older and need something somewhere to be replaced. Having to revisit the same issue gets to becomes aggravating. My two sense.

Awesome, thanks for the info. I have yet to try and reconnect it yet due to being busy and my freon keeps leaking out somewhere anyways. It'll stay cold for maybe a day, max, then back to warm air. But definitely good to know that the line in question will fix my defrost only problem whenever I decide to find my AC problem. And yikes that sounded like a serious annoyance. If I do decide to keep the truck I will definitely look into replacing with rubber.

 

[hobbyguy]

The biggest thing that you want to remember is that if you have your air selector not functioning due to this line leaking..you still have a vacuum leak.