That is the pressed fitting that I was referring to. It has to be cleaned throughly and re-epoxied in place. My shop used a product called JB weld. I then had them make a bracket holding the line in place, so that even if it wanted to pop out again, it would be held in place and unable to exit the hole. That was after my second occurance. The first time, it popped on the other side, which requires engine removal to access. This was only a year or so ago and we put on a brand new OEM manifold last year. The new one was still under warranty when it failed this summer, but the cost to remove and replace it, far outweighed the easy epoxy repair. This part is a known failure point and is bad by design. If I knew the first time, what I know now, I would have welded the fittings in place and never worried about it again - the only problem is that it's too much work to do this unless you have the part off the car, which is a huge job.

You are lucky it's the side behind the alternator. Easy fix, I was charged 4 hours and considered myself fortunate.

 

This is exactly what my shop did yesterday. The whole job cost me only $250! I looked into JB-Weld, it can handle higher temps then the epoxy my shop used. Does anyone know how hot that area gets? If I ever have to pull the motor again. I probably will have the parts removed and just have everything welded in so I don't have to worry about it.

 

Can you guys post pics or diagrams of the parts you're reffering to?

 

The piece being held is the part that fails - you can see the aluminum fitting on the far side that is still in place. In this case, the missing fitting on the near side popped out and was attached to the hose. My shop said the fitting on the near side can not be accessed without removing the engine, so we replaced the entire part with a new one. Less than one year later, the new part failed while under warranty. This time it was the opposite side, which can be repaired by removing the alternator. It was less expensive and made more sense to repair it than removing it for warranty replacement. If anyone ever replaces this part, do yourself a favor and weld the fittings on before installing it. I wish I had thought of that when the new part was in hand a year ago...if welded, it would never have happened a second time. I have now heard of this failure multiple times - I think it is bound to happen eventually in many cars.