Aged Coolant Hoses

Hello All,

I have just purchased a 94 NA 1.8. The car has covered 27,000 miles in the 27 years it has been on the road.

I am going through all the various servicing requirements and soon to do a full coolant flush, but would appreciate some guidance on the need (or not) to replace the coolant hoses. All hoses look fine to me from a visual inspection, all hoses feel pliable and intact - the car has been garaged so not much wet use on the roads. I guess my question is whether there is an ‘age’ requirement to replace the hoses now that they are 27 years old, irrespctive of the low mileage…or best to adopt the “if it aint broke, dont fix it” mentality on this?

I’m not an expert, but I’d suggest replace all the hoses water pump and thermostat, give the radiator a check and flush along with whole system, the coolant system should be good to go for a while…
Rob

1 Like

The hoses on my 270k km 96 Roadster are ancient. The only ones that have been replaced have been the heater hoses, after one failed due to the usual CAS O-ring oil leak (and the replacement Kevlar efort turned out to be not very reinforced). I converted to waterless (Evans) coolant several years ago, the theory being, along with other benefits, that the system doesn’t pressurize as it would with with a water based coolant. The remaining hoses appear to be in good condition still, but who knows? Hoses are supposed to ast 5-10 years, so I’m nervous just typing this.

Thank you both, my limited research online also says life expectancy of coolant hoses is 10 years or thereabouts, but i’m also very experienced in the hard life lessons of creating more and more unecessary work with things going wrong when trying to premptivley ‘fix’ things that arent yet broken. This car for me will be a garage queen with not very much use so my dilemma is ‘hurting’ :rofl:

The problem is that a failed hose and resultant overheating can easily be missed until too late as the temperature guage in these cars is hopeless. When I say too late, I mean catastrophically overheated engine and associated problems.
Your 1.8 has the CAS on the back right of the engine, right on top of the heater hose. The CAS has a sealing ‘O’ ring, that typically hardens up over time and allows oil seepage straight onto the heater hose, softening it and making it vulnerable to failure. I would certainly check that hose to make sure the rubber has not softened and no oil in that area.
As mentioned, if no record of any relevant work, I would consider Cambelt/waterpump replacement, cam cover gasket replacement(original Mazda part recommended), CAS ‘O’ ring replacement and yes, new genuine Mazda coolant hoses. These are available from Autolink UK or at least that is where I bought mine for my 1997 MK1 1.6 a few years ago.

1 Like

Also check the metal link pipe, they rust or at least mine has!

1 Like