I’m looking to replace the coolant hoses on my 95, 1.8.
I can get a full set of Kevlar hoses for about £50-£60 or a Silicone set for around £120-£150.
Are the Mazda OEM hoses Kevlar or rubber?
Kevlar always sounds pretty tough, they make bullet proof vests from the stuff, but it seems to get a poor write up where hoses are concerned.
Any ideas which to go for and any advice on where to buy.
Thanks
The Kevlar hoses I have used in the past were terrible; quite a short service life. The original hoses lasted a good 10 years, so I thought better stick with Mazda OE. Not much more than the Kevlar hoses anyhow. The silicone hoses come with nonsense claims, such as lasting 10 times longer than standard hoses, ie. 100 years+.
Mazda hoses are reinforced rubber (cotton reinforced I think). The previous owner of my 93 car went mad with silicone hoses everywhere; 5 years on, it all looks a bit tatty. Some of it looks very ill fitting.
Get some rubber ones, try autolink, give Andrew a ring for your discount or even MX5 parts
Andrew’s number is on their web site www.autolinkuk.co.uk.
Silicones are a pain to fit, but in my opinion look better. If well looked after and regularly cleaned, they won’t look shoddy after time has passed.
I recently bought a set of silicon hoses from a Chinese company on ebay. Just under £90 for a full set of 8 hoses for a MK2. I believe they have MK1 hoses as well. They haven’t been fitted yet, but they look very impressive. Found some good comments on the net from people who have them and a lot of nonsense from people who haven’t.
ive fitted the silicon one they seem ok but one of them seems to squash as it goes round the bend dont know how much it affects cooling but it concerns me a little
The hoses on my 97 1.8 are Kevlar jobs; they are split and look BAD. Previous owner obviously fitted them some time ago…don’t really know when.
My local garage has ordered OEM/Mazda hoses and they will be fitted this Friday: not too pricey…labour is the main pain.
Were I you, I’d go OEM.
The Baron