Hey there! I'm new here and I figured I'd stop in and ask a general question. I recently got a 97 Chrysler T&C with the 3.8L engine. This van runs very smooth and I took my brother, who may or may not be car smart, with me.

The van was maintained, not very well, by the previous owner who is a single mom with 2 kids. I've been slowly doing things to the van to jump start it's proper maintenance.

Last night I popped the hood and I was going to check the state of the air filter when I noticed that the hose leading from the air filter box to the engine is darn near pinched in half. Is this bad? I've noticed less than ok gas mileage and I'm not naive enough to think that the van is going to get 35mpg but it's got to be better than 14, so could this maybe be to blame?

Thanks so much!

 

Restricting air flow to the engine is always a bad thing. It could definitly cause poor fuel ecconomy.