Mystery car part

[lilfluff]

After getting a flat tire I decided to take care of a few (read very few of the car maintenance tasks I know how to do. In the course of doing this I happened to pop the hood and discovered a part simply sitting on the little ledge at the very front. It looks like it takes two tubes and has a two prong socket for some sort of electrical connection. I believe at least a few of people reading these posts do more car maintenance than I do. Anyone recognize this part?



Sorry for the poor quality, the pictures were taken in poor lighting with a sub-mega-pixel cell phone camera. The writing on the side is, "210 4047-2 Delco Remy." I was able to find the web site for Delco Remy, but their online part number lookup system doesn't appear to know about this thing.

This doesn't seem to have come from my car since I couldn't spot any loose tubes or electrical cables. If it was an old part that was replaced then it would have been sitting there for over a month. And if it had been on the road it seems really unlikely for it to successfully be kicked up into that spot.

Comments

[gsv2.livejournal.com]

WAFFLE IRON!

wait... no....

*ponder ponder*
I am going to take a guess, this is a 100% guess guess.
1. if the part smells like gasoline, I will call the fuel pump for the injector manifold. If your car is till running there must be a new one in there and you are holding an old one someone forgot to take out.
If you look behind the cylinder head, there should be a new one attached to two rubber tubes if this guess is correct. Follow the rubber tubes and seew hat they hook to.


2. Something out of the vacuum system. (probably will NOT smell like gasoline.

3. A random part of out the fuel system. Again, if the car
is running and not running fuel all over the ground it was probably replaced. And tracing the fuel line and the return line should lead you to an identical part in use in your car.

4. Part of another car that was set down on your car at a shop and has noting to do with your car.

[jecook]

Not a fuel pump. Those almost always live in the gas tank. (been there, Done that.)

My guess is that it's a sensor of some form, either fuel, brake, or emmisions control.

[gsv2.livejournal.com]

Tank pumps are a pain in the rear, I have replaced a few.

Fuel injected engines often use a secondary booter pump on the injector manifold to increase fuel pressure at the nozzle. Don't know why though, and I do know part number 4047-7 is a fuel pump, thus my sneaky suspicion that 4047-2 is also a fuel pump.

[jecook]

Ah. I stand corrected, then.

[gsv2.livejournal.com]

You may be right. Not all cars have a fuel pump on the engine end of things. I just picked that because it is a common part that fails and has a smilar part number to a known fuelpump. It could be a sensor.

[gsv2.livejournal.com]

and you are correct. This car does not use an injector pump. That thing doesn't match any part in the fuel system that I can find.
I have found pictures of the sensors and pumps and regulators. None of those match. It's a toughie!

[gsv2.livejournal.com]

What kind of car is it?

[lilfluff.livejournal.com]

A 97 Malibu LS. It's starting to get a bit needy for maintenance, but it has the perk of having been paid off for more than three years now. I have been putting aside money so I can take it into the shop and get a few things taken care of (It has been over a year for instance since I could have it spray windshield fluid). It still costs less to keep running that payments on a new car would be, it just comes in larger intermittent payments.

[gsv2.livejournal.com]

I give up. I think someone threw in an extra part.

[lilfluff.livejournal.com]

Well, in person it was identified as a part that is involved in determining the fuel-air mix.

Since the car is still running and my mileage still seems to be the same as usual I'm going to assume it either goes with another car, or that it was replaced.

I do have a check engine light on, but that's for the emissions system. (Which on review seems to be where the last four or five repairs were all done) It's money I don't really want to spend, but so far it's still much less than what car payments would be running.

[gsv2.livejournal.com]

Bag it and put it in the glove box just in case. ;)