AVO Silicone Throttle Body Connector for Jimny K15B

The AVO silicone intake manifold connector replaces the original rubber item (no.14 marked in red square) that joins the airbox to the throttle body.

The silicone connector seems like it has a slightly larger bore at the bend, and with smooth bore till the butterfly which should reduce the turbulence and improve the airflow into the manifold. The OEM rubber type has couple of ribbed flex humps in it which helps to tilt the airbox up whilst changing or cleaning air filter. The only problem I had with the silicone connector is that since it doesn't have the flex ribs the airbox lid will not open wide for easy filter replacement or cleaning but it still opens just enough to take out/insert the filter but with a bit of difficulty.

The additional benefit I see with the silicone connector is that the IAT sensor and the clean air line (for the block) fits much tighter to the connector. This means they would be sealed better without any chance of dust getting past it. While I do not know if all stock connectors let in dust through the IAT sensor bung mine did infact! It was an accidental discovery one day when I was removing the stock airbox that I noticed fine dust ingress into the rubber connector.

Finger wipe (you can see it in the photo) confirmed that it was indeed fine dust and once confirmed I opened and checked the top half (clean side) of the airbox but no dust there and it was clean. When I observed the dust pattern on the connector more closely it was clear that it entered through the sensor bung fitting because there was no traces of it before the bung on the same connector.

I wonder how or why this happened as neither the sensor nor the rubber connector was fiddled with in the past. The sensor is a snap fit on its bung on the rubber connector, no clamp is used or needed. So why did it let in fine dust? Maybe the particular piece was faulty or someone fiddled with it, I wouldn't know.

Anyway with the silicone connector this is not an issue anymore as the bung where IAT sensor plug into is pretty tight and it did need some silicone grease to get the sensor to slide in with force. One thing is sure no dust is getting past and it is the same with the clean air feed line for the block.

I just thought that I should complete this and put this in here on the blog as it has been a draft since far too long. I now run the AFE GT airbox but I am keeping the AVO silicone connector for the day I might change to stock.

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