Coolant Hose Explosion!

[MilTownSHO]

Well I had a REALLY bad night and I was driving the SHO a little hard, nothing to bad to let out a little aggression, when all the sudden tons of smoke is coming out from under my hood. I pop the hood and I can't see a thing it's smoking so bad, I look under the car and something is just pouring out all over. Turned out to be antifreeze. So I get the car home (lucky I was within a few blocks, so it didn't overheat) and I find that what I believe is a heater hose has literally blown up. Great! Made my night even better! cuss Anyway the hose has a metal twisting inside of it and it is in the backside of the engine almost under the throttle body. It runs into metal lines after where it broke. I will get a picture with the digital camera tommorow. But, does anyone have any idea hose this is until then? Also where I can get a replacement and how much it should cost? Thanks

 

[DJ SHO]

Yes, it's a heater core hose.

 

[SHOspazz92]

LOL, That EXACT Thing happend to me and my dad when we were having a little to much fun with the SHO then ****!, The part was 99cents, the Labor was 99 dollars oh_my (No joke)

<small>[ May 18, 2003, 04:22 AM: Message edited by: SHOspazz92 ]</small>

 

[93EmeraldMTX]

interesting. when replacing it, you might want to test your radiator cap to make sure its working properly.

 

[LaTechSHO]

rubber tends to deteriorate at the same rate... it all of the hoses under there are OE hoses... i suggest you replace them all. No one wants to go back in a few weeks after doing that job once, just to replace a different hose that could have easily been dealt with now


if memory serves, there are three under the throttle body (small ones) one on the back of the intake and the two main heater lines


Louis

 

[rangerj]

Miltown,

Louis is right. Hoses deteriorate at the same rate. As a matter of preventive maintanence I replace all hoses and belt ever 5 years or 75k miles.

I would rather spend the money on new parts than on a towtruck. rangerj

 

[Machspeed]

Same thing happened to me. I was able to make it to my mechanic.

 

[philw349]

I did that one myself recently and paid roughly $2 for the hose (if that). That was it. The whole unit (from what ford told me) isn't being made any more, but fortunately its usually only the rubber part that goes bad. I can't remember if we cut off the crimp connection with a hack saw, I think we did. Then just reclamped some fresh hose on the end of it long enough to reach where it needed to. Autozone is really helpful at identifying sizes and so forth if you ask them about it.

 

[rangerj]

Miltown,

If it is the rubber hose it can be replaced. Cut the "crimp" on clamp, without cutting the tubing (DAH), and replace the rubber with a piece of new heater hose (5/8 or 3/4?) and screw type clamp.

If the tubing blew, it can be soldered or brazed with a patch or splice. In fact the tubing can be replaced with copper tubing with a standard plumbing fitting for the sensor soldered into the tubing.

If the tube is rusted, but still in good shape, clean it up and paint it with engine paint. rangerj thumb

 

[MilTownSHO]

Just fixed it tonite, cut the crimp out with a brake cutter. Bought some rubber from Autozone for $1.05 and attached that with a clamp and all was well!

We had tried to ghettoly use to different size hoses without taking off the old crimp since it was like midnight but that didn't work (the seal between the two hoses was leaking real bad)

My clutch is really easy to put down now, not like its misadjusted it just requires little effort, I think the cable got soaked in coolant so its moves really easy now. Just got relearn to drive the car now!

 

[svtC_and_SHO_Owner]

can i join the club? same thing happend to me. very embarising headbang

 

[shojuan]

rangerj:
Miltown,

Louis is right. Hoses deteriorate at the same rate. As a matter of preventive maintanence I replace all hoses and belt ever 5 years or 75k miles.

I would rather spend the money on new parts than on a towtruck. rangerj

Louis and rangerj are right. My heater hose started leaking at the crimp connection last summer. Replaced that and then a month later another leak. For those crimped on sections of heater hose the Ford dealer gave me a foot of 3/4" bulk hose. Just takes a couple of inches (match the length of the crimped on rubber and cut an equal length of bulk 3/4" hose and clamp it on) I used a combination of dremel cutoff wheel and tin snips to remove the crimp. In late august I replaced ALL of my remaining cooling hoses. They were all original except for the top radiator hose and it is pretty amazing that they lasted 13 years and 144,000 miles without leaking. Probably a combination of high quality OEM hose and good luck. Getting the rubber shaped hoses off the heater core was a real bitch. I had to cut those nasty OEM hose clamps off. Then work a little silicone spray under the hose to help break the seal.

Hehe it's nice having a new radiator, all new hoses, new water pump, cap, and coolant sensors on there. Don't have to worry about my cooling system going south on me anytime soon.

I'm going to do annual coolant changes though. Don't want that heater core to ever start leaking on me! eek!