What is bend in air intake duct for?

[lornt78]

My Mk4 Astra 2.0 DTi has this apparently pointless bend in the air duct between the turbo and intercooler:



I'm thinking this must restrict the air flow more than a straight tube. I'm sure the engine designers are not daft, so what's the purpose of the u bend? I've even seen a photo of the same engine someone has upgraded the air filter and pipes, but they have kept this bent bit of pipe. Why?

[Rs1]

Likly explanation is so that it can take up some engine movement and not have the hoses poping off all the time.

[lornt78]

Nice one Rs1. That does sound like a good explanation. Cheers!

[debeerd]

Likly explanation is so that it can take up some engine movement and not have the hoses poping off all the time.

I agree, that is for engine flex.
What you could do is fot one of those straight hoses with the bump in for flex, but not sure how that would affect flow.

[Paul]

Same design as some coolant pipes, and I put it down to the same