Coolant Hose Life
 

What's the recommended time to replace coolant hoses? My car is over 10 years old and they've never been changed. The all "look" good on the outside. I have had one recent issue in which I had the headgasket changed and the indy replaced the coolant and I've had a leak from the where the hose attaches to the water pump. I've tightened the clamp and hopefully that will eliminate the leak. Seems as if the removing and reattaching has stretched the opening ("mouth?") of the hose a little. Is there some sealant that is used when attaching hoses? Wondering if they should have all been changed when the headgasket was done. All the hoses combined come to less than $50. Labor should have been minimal since everything was apart and drained. Opportunity missed?

Usually, if hoses are going bad, they'll show cracks if you squeeze them with your hand.

No sealant when attaching hoses, just a hose clamp. Check that the clamps are tight and look for cracks. It would've been easier to replace the hoses when the block was drained and the head off, it's still not too difficult, but they have to redrain and refill the coolant.

Hoses tend to last about 10 years or so, give or take.

Oil
 

Hi,

I've been there. If you replaced the head gasket, it was because you probably got coolant mixed with oil. If oil got in the cooling system, you do need to replace all hoses. They will start to fail one after another. Oil eats hoses' rubber.

It's easy and cheap.

Regards,

Juan

Modern OE cooling hoses should be good for at least 10-12 years. Mercedes uses really good hoses so I have seen some that are still good after 20, 25, even 30 years.

But if it were my car after 10-12 years I'd change at least the upper thats whats goingto blow first. Around 15 I re hose the whole engine bay.

I'm slowly doing the SDL because most of the heater hoses in back are $80-$100 so I do one a year.:D Only 2 left.:D

I think mileage and time both should be considered. I have replaced all the hoses on my 95 E320,,, 133K. While the hoses on my 95 SL with 62K still seem to be like new. :D

hose replacement time?
 

When hose feels squishy or soft, or cracks , time to replace. I dont recommend that I am still using original hoses on my 77 450SL! Check regularly. Regards, Abe G

I had no idea they were good for that long. I never really paid much attention to how long they were on the cars I've owned. I just look for cracks and replace accordingly.

My rule of thumb is 15 years for coolant hoses. Got a stack of them in the garage to change out on SWMBOs '93 124 sedan. No real problems yet, but I have gotten some small seepage at either end of the top radiator hose lately. This may be related more to hose clamps than hoses - I recommend changing the clamps along with the hoses.

One nice aspect of the MB and Zerex G-05 coolant is they leave very obvious white trails where leaks have occurred. Makes it easy to troubleshoot.

Don't forget those 15 year old rubber brake hoses.

- JimY

X2. Very easy to overlook, and very cheap to replace. After doing them on my W126's they looked scary after 15-20 years!:eek: Now whenever I buy an older car they are near the top of the list.

Yes, the hoses still look good to my untrained eyes. I tightened the hose clamp as much as I could. It looks like the end of the hose doesn't form a tight seal where it attached to the water pump or maybe there is a tear there. Before I would see a drop every 2 seconds or so when the engine was running. It was dripping from down around that attachment point and dripping down around the pump into the catch basin for the weep hole. I initially thought it was the pump failing. It was making somewhat of a mess, as jcuyhn mentioned, the coolant leaves a white residue. Since the leak was around the serpentine belt/pulleys/fan, it was splashing all over. I also noticed it must have come out of the grill and onto the hood when the car was running as there are water marks near the front of the hood!