Technical Small Breather pipe from airbox to back of engine ( poss to inlet manifold )

[norspeed]

Small Breather pipe, from airbox to back of engine ( poss to inlet manifold ), mine seems to have become solid, and broken off, is this a normal problem with the Fiat 500 ?, and can you just use a rubber tube, as opposed to buying the original fiat part ?

 

[jrkitching]

is this a normal problem with the Fiat 500

Yes

can you just use a rubber tube, as opposed to buying the original fiat part

Yes

and broken off

What exactly has broken?

There is a small hard plastic pipe that's part of the airbox; the hose attaches to this. They were often broken off at service time by hamfisted mechanics when the cars were relatively new; now that the plastic has age hardened on an older car, they're even more brittle and fragile.

If it has broken off, the best way to fix it is to drill out where it enters the airbox and screw in a suitably sized hollow brass spigot; easy to find on the internet.

New airboxes are stupidly expensive and almost all secondhand ones will have the same breakage.

If anyone is fortunate enough to still have an original unbroken airbox, I'd recommend leaving the small hose in place until you've unbolted the airbox; the breakages seem to occur when trying to remove the small hose with the airbox firmly secured.