If you hear suction coming from your car, truck, utility vehicle, or van’s engine, you probably have a vacuum leak in one of the vacuum hoses. SpringMasters Auto Repair would be happy to inspect your engine to find where the suction is coming from. We’d also be happy to fix the problem for you. Let’s talk about the signs of a vacuum leak and how the leak affects your engine’s performance.
1. Check Engine Dashboard Warning Light
A vacuum leak does one thing that your vehicle’s engine control module does not like and that is it adds too much air to the engine and combustion chamber. As a consequence of this, the engine control module will turn on the check engine warning light to let you know there’s a problem in the engine that it cannot fix itself.
2. Engine Hesitation and Stalling
Accompanying the check engine warning could be engine hesitation and stalling. The reason why your engine hesitates when you press down on the accelerator and as you’re driving is that the excess air in the engine creates a lean fuel mixture. This fuel mixture means that your engine is not getting enough fuel to run efficiently and, unfortunately, it will hesitate, sputter, and stall until you get the vacuum leak fixed to restore the air/fuel balance.
3. Rough or Sporadic Idling
One sure sign that your vehicle has a vacuum leak is your tachometer. If you take a look at it while you are sitting at an idle and you notice that the needle is moving up and down sporadically, this is usually a sign that your engine is getting spurts of air that it shouldn’t be getting. The spurts of air are coming from the vacuum hose that is leaking. Your vehicle will also idle roughly because, again, it’s idling on a lean fuel mixture.
4. Suction or Hissing
Finally, as discussed in the introduction, a vacuum leak often sounds like suction. If you think about how your vacuum cleaner hoses sound when you use them to clean your home, your car’s engine will be making a sound very much similar to this. If the vacuum leak isn’t too bad, instead of hearing suction, you may hear hissing sounds.
SpringMasters Auto Repair has an auto service shop in Chicago IL, and another auto service shop in Stickney, IL. Call the shop that is closest to you to schedule an appointment for an engine inspection. We will find the vacuum leak and fix it.
