oil cooler hose, really that difficult to change?

[luckys420]

first and foremost plaes forgive my spelling, and thanks for any help.
i have done several searches and most have said how dificult it was to change. is it really that difficult. the comments have " its alot harder than it looks". but i cant help to say, it does not look to be a hard job. If you dont want to read the whole story skip the next paragraph

this is very important to me because friday night on my trip back home at about the 100 mile point my lower oil cooler hose developed a severe leak, at idle it was a constant drip but at spead ithink it may have been squirting. any way the oil spread all over the driver side tire and brakes and all along the side of the car turning my cream color piant into a nice two tone color. when i checked the oil it was at the bottom of the dipstick,so i filled it up to the top marker and drove around the little town i was in to see how much i was losing. i didnt lose anything noticable so i took it on the highway and drove five miles, keep in mind i never lost pressure, then i checked the oil, no noticable lost, i did this for five mile increments at about 33 mile i hade lost i bottle of oil. so i filled up and drove for 20 miles, and checked again, not yet empty. so ther after i stopped every 30 miles and topped off the oil. and limped home. it took me about five hours to drive 250 miles.heres the catch

today is monday, the oil line comes in tomorrow at 11am and i need to be on an airplane that leaves for argentina in sanfrancisco 3 hours away at 11:59 PM. i am a pretty mechanically apt person.... in the VW world. can this job be done in time? I had to purchas som socket extensions as was sugessted when i did a search anything else i shoud need to do the job quickly and well done.

thank you for all the help.
William

[BoostnBenz]

I've never replaced them but looking at them they don't seem like they'd be that bad. It seems like there are a couple metal plates which hold it in place then just the ends. Everything is more difficult than it originally looks! I can't imagine not being able to do that in 11hours, I'd guess more like 1hr rather than a stroll through the park 5 minute swap.

Oil Cooler Hose Replacement Tips

You CAN replace oil cooler line without removing the motor mount.

Good Luck,

[MarkM]

If your oil cooler hose(s) is/are leaking badly, you have not choice but to replace. I have done this...when I replaced the head on my 300td, and had the oil filter housing off, I figured this is the time to do it.

I just cut the old ones and fished them out (already having taken notes on their proper orientation).

To be honest, I cant remember if I snaked the new hoses in before I put back the oil filter housing or after....I think I would have put in the hoses before putting in the filter housing...and even then this was a real real pain in the A__!!

Your main obstacle is the fuel injection pump.....If that was out, replacement of the oil cooler lines would be a cinch....but you don't want to go there!!

This job is doable, but be prepared to take a couple years off your life due to stress!! (I exagerate, a little).

1. After the first few tries, installation of the hoses appears to be impossible. Then you realize that the only way to do it is to SEVERELY bend the hoses, twist, force, push, etc. while trying to prevent damage to the threaded ends and other items in the engine compartment.

2. Then, you will scratch your head several times trying to figure out the routing...believe me...it looks simple....but when you try it, at times you will think you got the wrong hoses, because you cant see how they will fit!!! They have a very awkward looking placement, and will only fit one way. Before you take the old ones out, take meticulous notes, diagrams, digital photos, mental notes, etc. regarding their position.

3. Once you get them aligned, now the next phase of "fun" begins....with such limited access and difficulty lining up the hoses to the fittings, you will have a hard time just properly threading the fittings on the the oil filter housing. Not too, too, bad....and be carefull not to damage the threads. Also, lubricate the threads so they will be easy to thread on as much as possible with your fingers.

4. Now for the real pain!!! How to get a wrench onto the fittings that screw onto the oil filter housing...at this point you start thinking that it would be easier if you unscrew the engine mounts and try to lift engine up or do something to get access (don't really do this!!!)...and you realize with 100 percent certainty that when the original hoses were installed, the engine was out of the car. You will need a whole arsenal of wrenches with different offsets to choose a couple that will to the trick....in my case, I used one wrench to move a fitting 1/8th of a turn, then another one in the opposite direction to move another little bit then repeat.....In the end this is very tedious, frustrating, etc. (you may need to grind down the handle of a tool, or something like that, to do the job) and it is very difficult to get a good "handle" on these fittings to do the final tightening.

Also, watch out for all of your vacuum hoses and other "things" in the vicinity....it is real easy to totally screw up the routing of vacuum hoses if you accidently pull of lots of fittings, or maybe break plastic parts in the area.

______

Removing the oil filter housing may make it easier to snake the hoses into place, but this is another REAL, REAL pain in the A__. As bad as replacing the oil lines. To do this you have adequate access to a few of the mounting bolts (allen head), but real limited access to the others ( for at least one of the bolts, you need to use an allen wrench with part of the tip ground off to reach into the bolt head....there is about 1/4 inch clearance between the head of the bold and the wheel well.) And also very bad, once you get off the housing....its real hard to get your hand and a blade in there to scrape off the old gasket which will be hermetically sealed to the block, while trying to be very very careful not to get one piece of old gasket in the holes. I spent about 2 hours just getting EVERY little bit of old gasket off!!! Jeezus what a pain!

___

Anyway, I hope this helped. In my case, I couldnt get the oil filter housing and the hose fittings as tight as I wanted (due to limited access to fittings and bolts), and as a result, I have minor leaking at the base of the oil filter housing.....a real dissapointmment given that I put in all new parts. At least I know that I wont have catastrophic failure of these hoses which is a REAL DISASTER.

___

Maybe someone else may have suggestions regarding specific tools to use to get to the hard to reach bolts....I'd like to hear it, and maybe get down there again and take another crack at tightening.

Good luck.

[luckys420]

just finnished!!! thank you for your help. to be honest it was not that bad of a job. however, it was only easy after i removed the A/C hose. I could do this becasue it is not pressurized and has no fluid in it. i struggled for about an hour to get it out before i pulled of the A/C hose, then it took me 2-3 minutes to get it out, and about 5 to get the new one in and lined up for tightening,then about hlaf an hour to tighten it. the whole thing took about two hours
here are the tools i used
vice grip-to losson the nut that was connected to the oil cooler
1-1/16 open end wrench-for both nuts
craftsman auto locking pliers-for the nut connected to the oil cooler
ratchet with a total of 13 inches of extension for the clamps that hold the hoses in place

thanks and to those of you who have to attempt this this job -dont be afraid it is not that bad.

[coachgeo]

Thanks for the info. I will probably be tackling this before long too. Guess Ill have the AC drained. Do the oil line. then recharge the AC (it has to be done anyway)

[samiam4]

If you don't have a/c problems- leave the compressor in.

I've done a few of these- never fun dealing with dripping diesel oil. Simply disconnect the lower transmission bolt(and shock), and lift the engine a few inches.

They will snake out and in. I use my old 944 timing wrench to hold the oil line fitting in the oil filter housing.

My record was about 2hrs and the worst was 4 hrs.

Michael