Yeah...I'm pretty much an idiot. I keep finding things on my jeep that I'm not sure what the function is. I found a large pill shaped container bolted to the inside of my bumper on the passenger side. Its half full of fluid, and there is a hose that I'm pretty sure is supposed to lead somewhere, but it got cut off and I don't know where its supposed to go.

What is this thing? Where is the hose supposed to connect? What fluid is inside? Do I need to reinstall it? will my jeep run fine without it? What is it used for?

Any insight would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Dan

 

its your vacuum reservoir, i'm pretty sure it for the hvac controls on the dash or if you have a central disconnest front axle i believe it could have a line going there. what kind of fluid did you have coming out of it, just old condensation or was it oil?




ooooooh, and the line does lead to something, just keep looking you'll find the other end, or run the thing and listen for the hissing.

 

There wasn't any fluid coming out of it, I just shook it and felt/heard a fluid sloshing around in there.

 

prob water. mine was full. the search tool helps when you have a simple questoin. as there are a million of the same whats this questions...but yea thats you vac can...you can get rid of it by capping lines off ive heard but not sure. with out it your heat/hvac controls will work but not right. when i looked at mine good seems like you could cap the lines with bolts and hide em to me it would be same function. just with out a big container. but im not sure i left mine, ran it under hood

 

yeah i found that as well and mine ran up over the passenger side fender in the engin bay threw the fire wall. its about an 1/8in thick line and it runs right past the battrie

 

I unplugged my vac ball to move it and when pulling the line it hissed at me. I thought I was in trouble. Nope, just used the screw that attached the ball to the bumper and relocated it to the pass side firewall.

 

You have a 96, so no Vac disconnect on your axle. Thats one positive.

But your heater/ A/C will be stuck on defroster. And your cruise control will not work.

And no.. there should not be any fluid inside of it.

 

it will hiss when you unplug it, i think thats normal. but you wanna leave it plugged it, otherwise i think if you unplug it your heat will always be on.

 

Your heater controls will absolutely NOT work with the vacuum bottle disconnected. If you have them, cruise and vacuum disconnect axle will not work either. Like mentioned before, feed the hose into the engine bay and put you vac bottle in a safe place in there. I put mine right betweeen the passenger side front wheel well and the firewall. Fits like it was meant to be there.

 

So thats why I can't get my heater to work....stupid me, I thought it was the heater control valve. I've replaced it twice and given up. Thanks for the info.

 

In addition, it has a check valve in it so that when your manifold vacumm drops under a heavy load, it will retain some vacumm to keep your accessories from going crazy.

 

Hang onto that extra Heater Control Valve if you still have it. Yours will go bad eventually and often. It's a plastic POS bad design but, you have to have it for your heater to work. I bought one at my local Schmucks auto parts and got a lifetime warranty. So, I paid once and, so far, I'm on my 3rd one since buying my XJ 4 years ago. So, the lifetime warranty gig is about the best way to go on that.

 

Wow how ironic, I just posted the exact same question but in the opposite way. My AC only comes out on defrost and my cruise doesn't work, would never had thought the two were tied together. So I'm kind of new to this, how do I fix this issue? Run the hose through the firewall to where? And reconnect the pump?

Sorry if I'm a bit slow - First XJ!

 

Thanks for the tip, I always hold on to my old parts (bad habit since most are bad and can't be reused) but when I do some spring cleaning I'll be sure to hold on to those hc valves.

 

So what should I do about the fluid inside? Should i leave it? Can I drain it? How?