Your concern about future problems is valid.

When the check valve fails, it ruins the air pump, like the previous posts stated.

However, the exhaust gases that flow into the pump and ruin it, will also flow into the air filter housing and take out the MAF sensor, causing a very rich running condition, possible what you are already experiencing. The rich running condition can also take out the catalytic converter!

Hope this helps,

B

I may be wrong, but I think someone somewhere on the internet described fairly completely a fix for this problem, which is common. Maybe included drilling a hole in the pump body to avoid future failure. Like I said, I could be wrong... Since it is a common problem, I wouldn't buy one used.

All this does is pump air into the exhaust system when the engine is cold to get the catalytic converter warmed up quicker. Once the coolant warms up a thermostatic switch shuts the power off to the pump. What happens is the one way air valve corrodes and doesn't close completely. This allows hot exhaust to get into the pump housing. The resulting condenced moisture builds up and causes the pump to fail. So, as was pointed out, the pump could short out and drain the battery but you could prevent this by unplugging the pump connector. You would have higher emissions after startup but as long as the engine is thoroughly warmed up before any smog inspections you should pass.

It is not as bad as it looks or sounds - but is still expensive. When mine failed I ordered it through FCP Groton, drove it up on ramps, and had it done in pretty short order. Eeuroparts has these parts as well, along with free shipping, but you can still expect to drop around $400. I thought about going used, but most had the same number of miles as my car and would have only saved me about $150. Take a look at the exploded diagrams on their sites and you should be able to get it from there. When mine failed it filled with water, shorted out, and began drawing amps when left parked for a couple of days. I'm glad I did it but still miss the faithful orange glow of my check engine light every morning.