BOOM! Here's why you should replace radiator hoses if they are in questionable shape.

[Daveed]

This isn't a Q but more of an example and some advice. I rebuilt pretty much everything attached to the motor (including the motor) this last winter. I have about 200 miles on the car now and the ONLY hose I didn't replace was the bottom radiator hose. It looked good and felt fine. Was in the drivethru today and had placed my order when BOOM! I thought the car behind me bumped into me. It actually shook the car! All my antifreeze dumped on the the ground. I grabbed my order and parked it. Turned out the lower radiator hose BLEW. The outer piece that blew off was all the way up in my fan! I've never seen a hose explode like this.

So, even if your rad hoses look and feel good they might be old and on their last leg so replace them given the chance...an extra 200 miles for me was not worth it. I lucked out I wasn't 50 miles from home like Sunday.

 

[gsxAWDdsm692]

Damn! Wow thats mad funny. Lucky everything is fine besides that though.

 

[ROOKIE1]

well no wonder theres a crowbar in it .

 

[cmptrphreak]

Same here rebuilt everything but my upper radiator hose, I was at a stop light and boom I thought the engine shot another piston . Funny stuff guys

 

[RedTalon95]

Haha, what's worse is when you are just merrily driving along and your plastic radiator neck snaps in a million pieces and huge clouds of smoke go everywhere, and the passing Honda kids look at you on the side of the road and laugh and call you a ricer.

No, of course I'm not speaking from experience...

 

[jumpfroggy]

Good thread. I can't count how many times a hose busted on me in my old 2G FWD, and I had to sit on the side of the road with all my coolant gone/boiled off, waiting for the tow truck. $5 worth of hosing and a couple worm clamps fixed it every time, but it's a huge pain in the butt, plus the risk of overheating the engine and causing a warped head.

I just replaced a small water line hose to the turbo (was spraying out a small stream, like a hair spray bottle). I went ahead and replaced two others, the upper rad hose is relatively new, the lower just slightly soft so that's getting replaced. I think it'll hold up for a little while longer; and that's exactly why it'll probably bust just as I get on the highway a long ways from home. I've gotten sick of seeing the telltale smoke behind me on the highway and coming out the hood; I'm replacing my hoses early this time!

 

[99gst_racer]

Coolant system contents:

5 parts antifreeze
5 parts water
1 part crobar




So, was that an original hose that failed?

 

[95eclipser]

my ballon'd up befor it went

 

[gsxAWDdsm692]

I hope you guys know that he is putting the crow bar or flat head through the hole to show where it burst and how but the burst was.

 

[blownturbotsi]

I'm sure they know, it's sarcasm.

Good looking hose!

 

[Daveed]

The crowbar comments were entertaining!

As for it being the original hose...don't know. I appeared to be in better shape than an 18 year old hose...but ya never know.


One more reason to fix them before they blow...it cost me about $18 in antifreeze and the hose I just got this morning cost $7. DOH!

 

[jumpfroggy]

Just curious; when you said that hose "felt good", did it feel hard/firm like a brand new hose, or just slightly softer? I know old hoses get real soft, and finally get to where you can pretty much tear them in half with your hands.

Just bought my radiator off ebay (yeah yeah, I know), now getting a replacement OEM lower hose from JNZ. Like the old saying, Better safe than like Daveed

 

[gsxAWDdsm692]

Samco's FTWWWWW

 

[nufoundglry5]

Samco's FTWWWWW

Not for a 1g

 

[Project2G]

Dang... I have a hard pipe though =)

 

[olmytsi]

I ALMOST had that happen. 2 summers ago, i randomly popped my hood one day to check fluids and my upper hose was all bubbled up (car was warm from earlier drive), ready to burst. Replaced it that same day. Could have been a scare had i been driving the next day and BOOM.

 

[Daveed]

Just curious; when you said that hose "felt good", did it feel hard/firm like a brand new hose, or just slightly softer? I know old hoses get real soft, and finally get to where you can pretty much tear them in half with your hands.

Just bought my radiator off ebay (yeah yeah, I know), now getting a replacement OEM lower hose from JNZ. Like the old saying, Better safe than like Daveed

Nice saying there.

The hose wasn't too hard or soft. When a hose gets to either extreme in feel its toast. Also, if they start looking funny they're done also. To me this one "seemed" ok...guess not. I recently saw at the autoparts store a chart recommending replacement of all hoses every 3 years

 

[shoobaah]

that happened to me on my 420a...i had just bought the car, i literally had it for two days, i was pulling out of work and i heard a loud popping sound, turned out my upper radiator hose ripped. of course, cell phone's battery was dead but i did have my handy swiss army knife , so i cut it where the rip was (luckily, right near where it attaches to the radiator) and put it back on until i could get to autozone (10 miles away ). speaking of radiator hoses any one have any recommendations on where i can get a good looking set for a
4g63?

 

[Anger890]

Worst scare I had in regards to the cooling system was the bolt that holds the waterpipe in pleace backed out and blew the waterpipe clear out of the engine. Scared the life out of me. I had jsut finished tuning the car and was stopping at my place to grab some clothes before heading to the track. Pulled into my spot and BOOM clouds of smoke. I was like WTF? Luckily I was able to find the missing bolt and reinstall it (with red loctite rather than blue) refilled the cooling system and then went and ran a bunch of low 12 sec passes.

 

[acdavis25]

Holy old thread Check the supporting venders alot of the sell some OEM parts only one off top om my head i can think of is JNZ or you can try autozone again.

 

[xXx_BIG_xXx]

You can also go to STM they have some colored ones if your looking to add color to your engine bay.

But that would really suck to blow the hose. I always changed hoses when I did a flush on all my old cars regardless of their condition.

 

[ToughTalon]

Another thing to do, if your cheap, or just curious (for which I am both, ) is pressure test ## system with a cooling system pressure tester and you can discover hoses that look 'ok' under cool engine conditions, but this isnt the best method, just somthing that can help. I have found hoses on the verge of failure show the most evidence around the clamps, the hose will bulge quite a bit....

 

[crash89]

Had a similar thing happen. Buddy and I were cruisin in his 2g gsx and the upper radiator neck cracked, pissin coolant everywhere and smokin bad. Ive never seen a hose go like that tho..

 

[greg90gs]

uh oh , i just replaced my radiator and the upper hose but i forgot/ didnt have the cash at the time, to do the bottom. i know what im doing this weekend