Air Cleaner Inlet Actuator
Moves the flap that selects where the engine draws intake air from: cold air from outside the vehicle, or air warmed by a shroud around the exhaust manifold.
Both settings exist for real reasons. Warm air is for cold running and for throttle body icing — air accelerating past a throttle plate cools sharply, and on a damp day near freezing that can drop the metal below the point where moisture freezes onto it, restricting or sticking the throttle. Cold air is denser and raises the temperature at which the mixture will detonate, so it is worth more when the engine is working hard.
Two faults dominate and neither is the actuator wearing out. The airbox is opened at every filter change, and this actuator's connector and short loom sit exactly where the lid closes — so a pinched wire or an unclipped plug dating from the last service is a leading cause. And on older vehicles the warm-air duct itself perishes and falls off: it lives in the hottest part of the engine bay, is out of sight beneath the airbox, is on no service schedule, and its absence causes no noise and no leak. The flap then moves perfectly and selects a source connected to nothing.
Also known as: intake air control actuator, air cleaner inlet valve, warm air flap, intake flap actuator, air box flap, heat riser flap
Referenced by 3 codes
Codes involving this component (3)
Other components in Air Intake and Metering
- Intake Air Temperature Sensor 83
- Throttle Body 69
- Throttle Position Sensor 58
- Intake Manifold Tuning Valve 56
- Mass Air Flow Sensor 52
- Intake Manifold 51
- EGR Throttle Valve 38
- Throttle Actuator Motor 34
- PCV Valve 31
- Air Filter 30
- Manifold Absolute Pressure Sensor 29
- Crankcase Pressure Sensor 14
- Crankcase Breather Hose 13
- Intake Air Heater 11
- Idle Air Control Valve 9
- Intake Air Oxygen Sensor 7
- Humidity Sensor 5
Information, not instruction
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