Hey there, I have a 2000 Ranger V6 3.0 and was replacing my spark plugs when I apparently put a little too much lean into this tiny hose and it snapped. Anyone know what this is? Its on the left side of the engine bay adjacent to the washer and radiator fluid reservoirs. Thanks

 

Its a vacuum line, if its like my 04, your A/C vent controls no longer work. You can use a small piece of hose to cover the gap.

 

yep it's a vacuum line and man I hate those things. I've had to replace all but two of them now on my '90 Ranger. Over time heat makes them brittle and they're easy to break. What's so detestable about them at least on my vehicle is that the ends are little rubber boots that fit over a vacuum connection and often they are not the same size so you can't just go buy regular rubber vacuum lines to replace them with.

I've had to use glue and tape and any number of hacks to replace broken lines. Maybe one day I'll go to a ford dealer and just buy a whole new set of replacement lines. Autozone etc don't have a fix that I know of.

For yours I'd probably find a small piece of rubber vacuum line that will fit over that plastic line and put both ends in it and seal with glue of some sort. If not fixed your mileage and engine efficiency will suffer and as rcr4v3n said your vent controls may not work properly.