I had been having a few issues since I bought my 2002 9-3 SE with brake pressure and blue smoke on occasion from the exhaust for no apparent reason. The only connection was there were times where when the brake pedal required more force than usual, CHECK VALVESI would get a period of the blue smoke. I believe Ron mentioned some connection between the brake booster and the smoke and this afternoon,Ball Valves I think I may have confirmed that. Attached is a picture of where the vacuum line from the back of the intake manifold broke off along with a part of the check valve. Of course this had to happen on Saturday afternoon so I'm SOL until Monday until I can get over to my local Saab dealer for parts. Question I have is that when I went to pull the old hose off where it attaches to the intake manifold, I couldn't remove it after applying a rather strong effort. I didn't want to force it as it appears there is yet another part that the hose attaches to at the manifold. Almost like a rubber plug kind of thing? There is a similar fitting on the "silver thingy" pictures attached. Is there a trick to removing the vacuum lines from these fittings or do I just need to yank a little harder? All the hoses involved here are hard plastic. One tees off to the brake booster and another tees off to some silver "thing" attached to the engine with another check valve.

(Sorry for the description of "things",forged Gate, Globe, Check Valves but I am NOT a mechanic. Hopefully someone who has a 9-3 will know exactly what I'm referring to from the pictures? Should I replace these vacuum lines with the same hard tubing?The last question I would have is does anyone know if these are just generic check valves that can be purchased at any auto parts store? Somehow I doubt it, but I figured it was worth a shot anyway.

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