I own a 04 bentley gt and it has been running awsome for the last year of owning it. My question is do all 04/05 bentley continentals have to get the engine removed for the well known vacume lines cracking? I have no signs of it and car is idling perfectly fine, it's just always on the back on my mind

Photo of my gt

 

Mine is an '05. I think the answer is not "if" but "when", unfortunately.

But as it stands, if it is idling fine, I think you're ok, at least for now. I replaced all of mine with stainless, one popped off a connector and I got a taste of the vacuum loss, it has a terribly horrible idle, almost unlivable. They popped the connector back on, and it went back to normal.

I think the '04 is "engine out". My '05 was "engine out". I think it's a solid 30 hours of work to pull the engine. I pulled mine for something else and replaced the (already replaced) lines with stainless steel lines from Bentley. There is a guy that sells them much cheaper, I didn't know about him.

I'd enjoy your car, but put away $10k or so for the time when it comes to replace the lines. BTW, it's the line splitting at the cheap plastic connector, when you see the pics (they have them on this board) you'll shake your fist at whomever at Bentley approved that piece of junk part.

When I pulled the engine, I changed out both O2 sensors and both turbo actuators as well as something else just because I'm not taking it out twice. I bet my independent wouldn't take my calls if I wanted to

 

Thx for the reply. Do you know the guys info who sells the aftermarket stainless lines just for future reference?

Would you go as far as replacing turbos and engin starter while the engin is out? If I rember you can not do either of these without enginout

 

I certainly wouldn't replace turbos. Those aren't really life-limited parts as long as you don't run the bearings dry of oil. I haven't heard of turbos being an issue with the W-12 at all. Now, waste gate controllers, yes, I had one fail. You could tell on acceleration, it was weird. Engine had all sorts of error codes.

I can find the Bentley part numbers for the stainless, but that's not what you're asking. I think our good friend Johnny Hotspur will know the answer, you can PM him, or dig through this forum.

I really recommend digging around, there is a lot of info on common problems.

I'm no longer a do it yourself-er, I pay for quality work, but others like to tinker.

If you haven't bought a Ross-Tech scanner yet, buy that and get a baseline. I bought mine, had all sorts of errors, cleared them, then a week or so later checked and the stuff that was real came back, nuisances didn't.

When your vacuum line goes, you'll know it. The rough idle is unmistakable. If it's starting to go, you'll hear a whine that is emanating from your left front quarter panel, the vacuum pump will be running more than it should. But in my inexpert opinion (others here know FAR more than me, I'm just an owner that has repair receipts) if it's idling fine, you are ok for now.

One thing I am certain of is that you can't leave these cars sit for extended periods of time. The stuff I've had to replace are items that need to be exercised. Wastegate controller, wheel bearing, tires…make sure this thing gets driven.

And…I'm a broken record on this, but the infotainment system is garbage.

 

I am just happy with what I got. I feel lucky to have purchased the one i did. Alto tho reason i did purchase it was the long maintenance history that came along with it. I think there was around 100.000 canadian $ of debugging and maintenance on record.

As for or doing things myself I think it will depend of the severity of the job at hand haha. Me and a good michanic/friend changed out all the coild and plugs/ filters last summer and it was a 100% fun and worth it job.

I do have to store it over the winter tho due to the face that I am in the cold winter north. Obv in the garage and with battery maintainer. It was the c tec one that everyone recommends on this website!

 

Have you kept oem infotainment systems or upgraded them?

 

Search the forum, there are multiple threads on this. I advocate Ben Hur as a plug-and-play answer with your own radio, but it is far too expensive. Others advocate for a Chinese thing that seems to be ok, but the bezel replacement is all plastic but it more reasonably priced.

Still others for some reason like the look and feel of the original equipment and have no interest in modern conveniences like Apple CarPlay.

To each, and to each's pocketbook, their own. Up to you.

But do some research, almost any question you have has already been addressed here.

 

British,
That would be me....

Johnny

 

The guy that makes the stainless steel lines is Jason G. He just moved his shop from NY to someplace about 40 miles outside of Charlotte, NC. Last I talked to him (about two weeks ago) he ask me to give him a few weeks to set everything up and we’ll talk about him making my lines.

 

Teamjones, could you please share Jason’s contact info once he is squared away in Clt. I have a 07 flying spur and would like the info when my vacuum lines fail. Thanks

 

The Spurs don't have the vacuum line issue I thought???

 

@Samhain ,
All the Bentley GT's, GTC's, and Flying Spur's have vacuum line issues, it doesn't matter if they are Base, Speed, or Supersports models, all first gen's have the vacuum line faults, the difference between the faults has been covered many times on this forum, but I will list them again.

The 2006 and up Flying Spur never had the vacuum lines over the transmission, but has all the rest of the vacuum lines that fail along the firewall behind the steering rack, and underneath the intake manifold, along with the lines that run to each wheel well to either vacuum pump on the drivers side, or vacuum sensor on the passenger side North America models.

The GT's, and GTC's have the same issues as I just described above, plus the 2004-2006 (some say 2007 which I have never seen) GT's have the added issue of failing vacuum lines over the top of the transmission, which requires a 100 % engine out job, whereas the other lines along firewall behind the steering rack and the wheel well areas can be serviced by removing the steering rack instead of the engine, be it GT, GTC, or Flying Spur


I wonder how the second generation vehicle lines
are routed, and what materials are used.

Johnny

 

Of course I was referring to the over the transmission vacuum line. That's the one that everyone is terrified of. Of course all the cars have vacuum lines in other places.

 

To be fair, then you should have stated such.

Just a FYI, the lines over the transmission do fail, but the lines along the firewall fail much more and sooner than the trans lines, even the two large vacuum lines at the back of the intake manifold crack right at the connection point, and as some of the lines over the transmission only leak when the solenoids are activated it is not noticeable at idle, but the main vacuum lines at the firewall/engine that feed the lines over the transmission are the main culprit...

Johnny

 

Here is my video showing the vacuum lines along the firewall steering rack area.

Johnny