Checking to see if I put my hose back on right

[Zosozeppelin]

Today, I changed my air filter for the first time (I feel so accomplished! Yay me!). I've never done anything like this on a car, and I refuse to pay the $60 to let the dealer do it, so I decided it was time I learn (for those of you who don't know, I'm a 20 year old girl who knows nothing about mechanics). The air hose popped off when I removed the cover, and I put it back on, but I was checking to see if I needed to stick the cover in further down the hose. Please excuse my lack of knowledge of the technical names of these parts

By the way, those clips were a pain. Only one popped off easily. I ended up skinning two knuckles and somehow cracked a thumbnail and made myself bleed getting them off

[fdryer]

Yeah, but, you're not supposed to break a nail, girl!?

Here's a picture of what we call worm clamps as the little screw thingy needs either a flat blade screwdriver or socket to turn the screw clockwise (tighten) or counterclockwise (loosen), relative to facing the screw head. Your picture looks like the air hose isn't on completely because of the hard plastic tab to the left of the clamp. It appears that the clamp is too tight and needs to be loosened as much as possible (the clamp made larger in diameter) before the tube that fell off can be fitted on better. Once you loosen the worm clamp the tube underneath it will be easier to fit over the plastic tube until the mated ends fit nicely. Take it off to see how one fits over the other and mates with tabs for alignment. Once back one about 1/2 inch or so the clamp can be tightened until the fitting is firm without deforming both plastic tubes.

Perhaps some 'male' aquaintenances(SP?) can show you with their egos in check.

[Zosozeppelin]

Most of my guy friends are USELESS when it comes to cars, haha. I figured that it wasn't on all the way and that I'd have to unscrew the worm clamp thing to get it on right. Is it safe to start it up and move it into my garage with the hose like that, or should I just do it in the driveway?

And it doesn't bother me that I broke my nail. I was such a nail biter when I was little that I keep them short anyways, and all it did was just crack a little. I'm not afraid of getting hurt and getting my hands dirty!

[fdryer]

The car won't be hurt. You can move the car into the garage to finish it right. All this did when it fell off was expose unfiltered air for the time you didn't notice it and its not good to have it this way if you drive in the city with all the dirt kicked up from traffic. Better to find out now and fix it while you can and channel filtered air into the engine.

Its too bad for the boys that you know that aren't experienced in car maintenance.

Any time you work on the car, try any hand lotion to grease up to your elbows with it. The best ones are the ones that dry out so tools and parts don't slide off your hands or fingers. Wait a few minutes for lotion to dry up or place your hands on a dirty part of the car to pick up fine dirt - this now makes your hands gritty and wipes off enough to allow instant gripping. The lotion seals the pores and allows washing off the real greasy dirt later since it doesn't get into the pores. There's a special hand cream that auto stores sell just for this purpose to seal your hands from grease and oil and makes wash up fast leaving almost no trace of grease. A finger scrub brush does the rest. Borax powder is one brand, Orange ******(?) is another degreaser with grit to help clean off greasy hands. Then follow up with hand lotion to keep the skin soft from drying out.

[Zosozeppelin]

Thanks for your help, fdryer! And thanks for the lotion tip, I'll do that next time I decide to be bold and venture under the hood! (Probably for when I buy my K&N air filter that I wanted to install instead of the STP one I got). I got it on nice and snug. It really is a lot easier than the owner's manual makes it out to be, I was a little intimidated at first.

And I think it's time I got that engine bay cleaned out... lol.

[golftango]

Fdryer is spot on, once again. Glad to see someone who's not afraid to get their hands dirty and learn about general car maintance. Another tip, go to Harbor Freight and pick up a huge box of Nitrlie gloves. Comes in handy, no pun intended, to keeping the hands clean.

[Zosozeppelin]

Originally Posted by golftango

Fdryer is spot on, once again. Glad to see someone who's not afraid to get their hands dirty and learn about general car maintance. Another tip, go to Harbor Freight and pick up a huge box of Nitrlie gloves. Comes in handy, no pun intended, to keeping the hands clean.

I'll have to look into that. Since I'm broke and in college, anything I can do myself to save money I'll do. It seems pretty senseless to me to pay the dealer that much money when I spent $8 to change it myself.