When I am stopped at a light or something and I have my car in "D" there is a rattling noise coming from my dash, when its in neutral the noise goes away and when I start to pull off the noise goes away... I saw a post about this a few days ago, but could no find it, anyone know what this is?????

 

There is a TSB about this. Its the hardline for the brake assist. Pull the hardline out of the clips and wrap hockey tap around the contact points. Or do away with the hardline alltogether by finding some correct size tubing.

 

whats is its purpose?? will leaving it alone have any mechanical effects???

 

You will have no adverse effects except your level of sanity if you leave it alone. It is the brake assist line. The brake master cylinder uses the vacum developed by the engine in the IM to require less force be applied to the brake pedal. If you want see what it does disconnect it. The braking force required will be much higher.

 

I always noticed my brakes being a little hard to press. I just made sure there wasn't an air leak where any of the hoses connect. Didn't seem to help the braking situation. I might just get all new hoses now and see if that works.

 

There is a check valve that can fail. There is a Brake Trouble shooting section in the FSM. I'll sum it up. The Brake assist uses engine vacum to supplement pedal effort. When the system is working properly it will open after any braking to allow vacum into the system again. A simple way to check is: Get going on an open road. At least 50. Turn the car off while still coasting at speed. Hit the brakes then release. The pedal should have felt normal. Then hit the brakes again. This time it should be much harder to push the pedal. If there is no difference between the first brake and second or if the difference was miniscule you have a faulty system and should look into that before you die.

 

Will do......

 

Hold on so you turn your car off while your coasting at 50 and still in Drive??? Is that safe I mean there aren't too many open roads where you can just go a clean 50 and not have any traffic around you

 

Don't leave it in drive. To find an open road do it at 1AM.

 

You won't be able to start the car again if it's still in Drive. I just did a power brake test with my driving instuctor last year. At like 20 mph though. Try and do it in a HUGE parking lot. Watch out for light posts.

 

You found my marble! It fell through the air vent when I tried to see if it would fit...