[W126 Coupe] AIR VALVE

[Dick Spellman]

Hi Clay:

I do not know who suggested soaking it in carb cleaner for 4 hours but 
here is what I have done at the recommendations of Mike Ramay who has 
often educated me on service issues in the past.

Remove the unit, and spray carb cleaner in the plunger area and cycle 
the plunger applying 12vdc to confirm the plunger is working as it 
should.  Mike R. has a separate set of instructions for repair to the 
electrical circuit in the nose where the connector is should the plunger 
no longer work as a result of the internal electric leads (2) snapping 
rendering the solenoid useless. So, I have just done the cleaning, made 
sure the plunger moves freely and not soaked it to avoid getting that 
circuit up front too wet.

Now, I'll assume you are doing this because your idle is off?  Keep in 
mind those two hoses, harden after many years and can crack leaking 
air.  So, if you suspect this is the case, just replace them (not a lot 
of fun getting them in place but, it can be done).  Also, I have been 
told more than once that the spring in the solenoid casing on the air 
valve becomes weak with age so that even if the valve is clean you can 
still get poor idle control from the valve.

So, my recommendation is give it a good spraying of carb cleaner, let 
that stuff drain out by holding with openings facing downward and test a 
few times to be sure you see the valve moving freely in the openings.  
Inspect your hoses.  Pray the spring inside is in decent shape.

Regards,

Dick

clay wrote:

> Thank Dick,

>  I'll give it a shot. When they say to soak them in carb cleaner for 

> about 4 hours do you have to cover or not dip the plastic plug in part 

> in cleaner ?

> Clay

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