Has anyone successfully replaced the short piece of coolant hose on an '88 300SE without removing the water pump?? Mine is severely cracked but not leaking... yet. I was hoping to find a permanent and quick fix. Thanks!

Paul

I just replied to one similar to this.

Deep in the archives here, I once read that someone coated the hose with vaseline, then wrestled it on. I'm not too sure I'd want all that residual petroleum jelly swimming around in my cooling system.

It's my opinion that there's only one way to change this hose and it calls for removal of the water pump.

There are dozens of posts here that discuss this process.

Some folks trim a half-inch or so off the pipe sticking out of the head. Maybe boil the new hose so it's as soft as it'll get then wrestle it into place.

Silglyd is probably better than Vaseline since it's not petroleum based.

Sixto
95 S420
91 300SE
87 300SDL
83 300SD