Please help. I have been through 4 secondary air pumps in the last year. My mechanic tells me that the last pump he tore apart had carbon in it. Does this mean that the kombi valves are going bad or the catalytic converters? Has anyone had a problem like this before? I am desperate and love my car but hate all these problems...

gTuck

 

Get used to them. Love my car but time after time its always something.

 

If the pump is yellow on the inside, either the combi or the vacuum lines are shot.

I've rebuilt my pump last year and the problem came back, which was a dead giveaway of bad combis. If you hear sputtering around the engine similar to the exhaust noise, your combis are stuck open.