K13 tape mystery.

[Micra 1.2 30th Edition]

Hi. Just reg’d on here. My aunt just bought from a dealer, a 2013 ‘30th Ed’ 1.2 Micra - manual drive (which I’ve just discovered from online world is a K13, though the paperwork doesn’t state this. I drive this myself. When viewing, I asked the dealer what the thin plastic tape wrapped around a rubber pipe (possibly a manifold pipe? - sits just behind the rad’ fan and attaches somewhere under the battery plate…?) is about. He felt it and stated there’s a crack/split in the pipe and that they’d have it replaced.

Before collection, by phone, the dealer advised that it wasn’t a split pipe and so doesn’t need replacing. Typhoon, I forgot what his colleague told us about it when we got there, though the gist of it was that it’s normal/standard. What they had done is replaced the thin ad-hoc looking tape with black plastic (insulation ?) tape.

Any thoughts on this (tricky w/o a photo I know; can attach one tomorrow). Any K13 owners/drivers out there who recognise this?

Thanks in advance.