Hello all, I recently took my car to the mechanic to find out what was making a hissing noise like when you take the air filter container off a carburated engine. The engine would sounded like it was going to quit when put in park or at a stop at a light. I thought it was due to the engine being idled down too much since he did a tuneup on it and replaced the distrubuter. Come to find out he said it was a Power Steering Assist Valve hose that had busted. I'm thinking it is some kind of vacuum hose. When he closed off the end of the hose with his finger over the end, the engine stopped surging and ran just fine. He said that it was a redundant device and that I could just plug it up with no problems and leave it or to go ahead and replace it for around $60. It's located just under the Power Steering resivoir near the passenger side front wheel. Could someone please expound on what this does and if it warrents to have it replaced? My car is a '90 Camry DX with a 3SFE 4cyl engine with 263, 000 miles on it. I put
100,000 on it myself over the past 4 years and it's still goin......Thanks in advance,
Savalas