[ImmoralPassat]

2004 b5.5 1.8t 83k miles

just did the timing belt, there was a leak before I did so, hoping it was the water pump, disappointed to find out about the notorious coolant flange.

Turns out this elbow doesn’t like brute force! It also turns out that Vw gluing on parts makes some part replacement a nightmare, but hey, it’s a cool car and pretty easy to work on.

So this is the part! I got it from the part number. My question is, what is this pipe and where does it lead to? The plastic shattered, not that I saw it happen, but I’m afraid it fell inside the metal tube in which it connects to towards the radiator down by the turbo in the picture below. What do I do? Vacuum suction it out? Would debris from the shattered elbow potential block something in this metal line?

And to the bigger issue, can I just use a random radiator hose with a 90 degree bend? I ask because of time and money. Because I can just grab a hose from oreillys. Or is it absolutely necessary to replace this with OEM.

thanks! Also the coolant flange was only a pain to get to because of the small space but the worst thing I experienced was attempting those awful 1time hose clamps with a dull pair of side snips.

 

[Annunnakkip]

This reminded me some time ago when I went to replace the variable intake manifold assembly, and when I put the plastic cylinder that has the windows, a small part of about 2 cm broke without me noticing... it was sucked into the combustion chamber when I started the engine to test the replacement... the engine rattled about 3 times and threw away. the engine managed to get rid of the problem by itself... after that I removed the collector and saw that the plastic piece had broken . replaced again and to this day the engine is firm and strong. maybe you are as lucky. I think it's okay to be concerned, but gather up the broken pieces and see if the broken piece is really big or just specks. where does that metal tube go? for the turbo?

 

[VAGguy]

Those pieces are brittle after so many years. They are not glued, but rather fused to the metal pipe from years of heat.

To get back on the road, yes, you can use radiator hose. But you need to replace it with the correct part asap. They make silicone replacements that are better.

If money and time is a concern. Amazon has it for $8.99

https://a.co/d/3tLwc4A