BACKGROUND. While doing an oil change, I noticed that my air cleaner intake duct hose was torn at one of the fabric sections in a circumferential fashion. It didn't look so much like a tear and more like an adhesive failure given the clean separation of the 2 overlapping ends. The 2 sections of fabric appeared to be originally glued together (possibly with a similar fabric glue like what I'm using below) from the factory. In the picture, marked in red was where the clean tear/separation in the fabric intake was. The separated parts had about a 1/4" sleeved overlap of fabric.
REPAIR. Instead of buying a new OEM flexible fabric intake hose ($70), I decided to repair it using Bish's Tear Mender ($6), something I've had good luck with my outdoor gear (esp zippers that are glued to jacket pockets without stitches).
Bish's Tear Mender is a latex based product and works with porous fabric/leather. You put the adhesive on both sides to be glued together (in this case, apply generous adhesive to both mating surfaces of the 1/4" sleeved overlap sections on the separated fabric ends) and then press them together. You should also check the inside of the tube as well to press the 2 internal fabric ends together to seal edges flat (I was able to get my hands in the internal channel to press the ends flat--if not, use a wide flathead screwdriver to push down on the interior ends) . Make sure you use plenty of adhesive to cover all of the mating fabric surfaces to ensure a good seal. You have about 3-5 minutes to work the overlapping edges flat together before it dries and creates a flexible (very important in this application), waterproof, permanent bond.
I've had great luck with my outdoor gear using this product and this repair is worth a try. The only thing that may cause this repair to fail might be prolonged exposure the higher temperatures in the engine bay over time (but I am guessing the prolonged exposure to engine bay temperatures are also what caused the original adhesive to fail in the first place), but I'll monitor.
For $6 for a 2 ounce squirt bottle, this seems to be a no brainer fix.
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