My 03 was running a bit rough when cold and I could hear a bit of a hiss from around the IMTV's. Pulled the top valve and applied a bead of high temp red silicone sealant around the O ring and reinstalled. The bottom IMT won't come out but you can put a bead of sealant along the O ring by undoing the bolts and pulling the valve out and rotating in place. Let it dry. Car runs smooth and no hiss.

 

TOny, yes, that does work. But, wait until you go to replace that o-ring later. TRUST ME!!!! Makes the job a lot more difficult in having to clean off all that RTV later. Guess what I did awhile back?

It isn't a bad idea, but also realize that there may be a price to pay later.

 

Why were you taking it apart later? If it's sealed it's sealed, why screw with the O ring later?

 

Probobly cause Chris doesnt like to shade tree especially when the orings cost less than a tube of silicone..also if you want to clean out the oil that always will be collecting in the lower intake at the IMT. You wont be able to easily

 

Well I've been pissed on by two of the best, so we'll see.

 

Tony, like Brutal said, I would prefer not to shade tree mechanic it. I was battling the P0171/0174 codes and did that more as a test to make sure I wasn't battling something simple (later found out it was the PCV hose).

The other thing that you have to be careful with is that you don't get too much RTV on the joint/in the wrong place. You get too much there, you can mess up the IMT valves and then you have bigger issues.

By no means do I want this to sound like you are "doing the wrong thing". It is a viable fix. But, if I have the option to make things like they were from the factory (or better), I will do that. It is a personal thing with me. Besides, it is nice to see the "devil's advocate" side of things so you know the possibilities. It always sucks when you do something and then find out later, Opps, that was not good.

 

Many of these cars are now more than 10 years old and are in what I call "weak hands" (i.e. deferred maintenance). The error codes for the IMT's are P1532 and P1549 are are set when the engine runs at more than 5,000 rpm for 20 seconds. I don't think that I've ever run my engine at 5,000 rpm for 20 seconds and so even if the IMT's don't work all I'm losing is about 5% of peak hp...big deal. On the other hand a manifold leak causes problems all the time. So yes, it's nice to be the perfect mechanic but most of us are just trying to keep our cars running and making bogeymen out of simple fixes is not helping.

P.S. After I wrote the previous paragraph I thought about this problem. The IMT is a plastic cylinder within the manifold, an aluminium cylinder. Plastic has a much higher coefficient of thermal expansion than aluminium so if the cylinders match at engine operating temperatures there will be gap at freezing temperatures. Add to that an O ring that hardens with time in the expanded postion and you've got the recipe for a poor design.

 

I took a small file to mine and chamfered the plastic exterior edge of the valve slightly. after that it popped right out. I can’t imagine this does anything negative to the function of the part, and it took what was probably a 1 hour job and made it a 15 min job.