'88 300SEL - short radiator hose busted - need info ASAP
 

UPDATE - HOSE REPLACED EASILY BY CUTTING A VERY SMALL PART OF THE PIPE AWAY - NO LEAKS! :) THANKS TO THE MEMBER HERE THAT TOLD ME THAT ON ANOTHER THREAD.

I guess we should have read up first, but the short radiator hose on the front top of my moms '88 300SEL (M103) was about to burst. We went ahead and damaged the old hose getting it off and not sure what all has to be removed to put the new hose on! We thought there would be enough of a clearance to slip the new hose on, but not so. My car is in the shop, dads brakes are messed up on his truck and cannot get parts until tomorrow and I am without transportation to work in the morning. I should not have sold my extra car last week!

Any help appreciated!!

Funny, I just found my old thread on this. Surprised it lasted 6 more years. Still was ok, just seeping some. I had forgot I had posted this 6 years ago. ;) Time to go back and read up... looks like we have a mess and no cars to drive!

Thanks!

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/tech-help/264981-m103-short-coolant-hose-leaking-instructions-replace-2.html

I went back and re-read and from what I gather the water pump needs to come off. We simply do not have the time or tools to do it and with this being Sunday, my mechanic is not available. We are going to take someone elses advise and take a saw and cut off part of the pipe to the left (if you are facing the car). It looks like it will not take much to do it.

What a STUPID design on Mercedes part. They should have never made that like that.

BTW, on the other thread everyone was asking why replace it. Well it was 22 years old and very rotted. It had developed a huge knot on it.

Ah! We got it without having to remove the water pump! We took a saw and cut off part of the pipe (very little) and got the hose in place. Foolish on MB's part to design this like that. They should have left more of a gap between the pipes. There is no reason that should not have been done.

Funny thing is this thing was leaking in 2009 when I posted this and it was still the same hose... it had stopped leaking but it looked like it was about to pop. Glad to have it changed.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps3034a52d.jpg

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps7c7fce81.jpg

Old hose was shot!!

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psab1fb72e.jpg

New hose (that I purchased here on Peachparts) was a thicker hose, unless the old one had shrunk down.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ps4c58b08c.jpg

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e1...psb6c8b01a.jpg

you have 2 options to replace that hose, remove the waterpump or remove the cylinder head. Id go with remove the waterpump. I've honestly never seen that hose ever go bad. Yeah it may look like its enlarged, but unless its leaking, I would of never touched that hose.

What he said.

However, I would advise against using that URO brand hose. Plenty of threads on the short lifespan of their parts, especially their rubber components.

You can buy the genuine hose from your local deal for under $15. Given the epic pain the ass that replacing such a seemingly simple hose is, I'd use nothing but the highest quality hose. Think about it, the one on there lasted nearly 27 years. And like vwauditech said, yours is one of the first I've seen go bad, I replace them when I have the heads off of cars just because, but I don't know that I've ever replaced a failed one.

Thanks, but the hose has already been replaced. As I found in an old thread, we just cut off a very small part of the pipe to the left and the new hose slid right on, took about 15 minutes and didn't have to remove the water pump - no leaks. :) It was a dumb design, MB could have made that gap larger to begin with.

Yes this hose had been seeping for 7 years. I had posted about this on this forum 7 years ago (I had forgot about it, but had already posted this) and even then it was leaking a little. It was still leaking, but no worse, but I had to start driving the car again (it was my car, now moms car) on the freeway 65 miles per day and I didn't want the thing to pop on me. Had it just been used around town like she uses it, we wouldn't have touched it. Well when we removed it, it was very dry rotted, it literally chipped away.

Oh really? I didn't know that. Too bad that that this website (Peach Parts/Pelican parts) sells this hose on their website. I bought it from here thinking it would be a good hose. Well anything would be better than what was on there and it will probably outlast the car. :)

Funny thing was it was easy and the water pump really don't have to be removed if you want to cut a little part of that pipe off.

Thanks again!