A couple of weeks ago I noticed a very slight leak from the top radiator hose so I initially fitted a jubilee clip and tightened. The annoying dribble was still there so I figure I needed to replace the hose. Having not fiddled with a cooling system before, it seemed a straight forward job so I ordered a hose from Autolink. I noticed they sell hoses in sets, so to save a few bob I ordered a set of 6 hoses, as well as trotting to Halfords for £20 of coolant.
After struggling for a couple of hours to free the four fat hoses I look at the two small heater hoses that run into the rear bulkhead. Access for one of them looked impossible and they both looked in fine condition so I left it at that and didn’t replace them. After filling the system with about 5 litres of good coolant I tested the system and all seemed well. I also went for a 20 mile blast and no drips or leaks appeared. I was content and self satisfiied at a job well done…
Saturday comes, and I leave for the 65 mile trip to the Goodwood Festival of Speed on a glorious sunny morning. I get 20 miles from home on the M25 and steam starts shooting out of the bonnet…bugger!
I pull over, pop the bonnet, half thinking I mustn’t have tightened one of the clips enough… but no! Steam was shooting out of that pesky hard to reach heater hose at the rear of the engine, that I thought was in good condition.
Well I have just finished replacing the heater hoses; what a palava. I had to take the coil pack and cam sensor off to get access. I had a good luck at the split hose and clearly was suffering from softening due to a slight oil leak from the cam sensor. So while its off I am going to replace the O-ring.
looks o.k on outside…
loads of splits on the inside!!
cam sensor…I hope it goes back on, as easy as it came off !!
Moral of the story; (1) don’t think that if a rubber hose looks o.k. from the outside it will be allright on the inside (2) oil on the outside of a hose is a bad thing.
The suprising thing to me about this story is the coincidence of me replacing one hose, and then two days later another hose popping.