My upper radiator hose seems to get way fat when the engine gets warm. I’m pretty sure its going to bust after repeated expansions but I’d like to know the cause.
Could there be something blocking the flow through the hose causing it to expand w/ abnormal pressure?
The car will occasionally overheat, like maybe twice a week it will run a bit warmer than normal.
Thermostat’s been changed recently, timing is OK.
thanks,
js
Might be a faulty thermostat. Ive had that happen to me in my 5.0 before. Hope this helps
any other opinions? Could a faulty thermostat cause rough idle?
How about replacing the hose? as rubber ages in can stretch more and more… think of a balloon… hard to blow up straight out of the package, but if you stretch it some before blowing it up, it is much easier.
Originally posted by Texas25RS
How about replacing the hose? as rubber ages in can stretch more and more… think of a balloon… hard to blow up straight out of the package, but if you stretch it some before blowing it up, it is much easier.
I was going to anyway but figure I should find out what the fast idle problem is and get it all done at the same time if it involved draining coolant. Is it necessary to drain coolant to replace upper and lower radiator hoses?
Originally posted by '90_Integra
[B]
I was going to anyway but figure I should find out what the fast idle problem is and get it all done at the same time if it involved draining coolant. Is it necessary to drain coolant to replace upper and lower radiator hoses? [/B]
Yes, you will have to drain coolant… perfect time to replace it as well… just ake sure to dispose of the coolant correctly (call your waste water management in your city to find out how) because anti-freeze is EXTREMELY toxic.
Mine did that immediately after I installed the exhaust header… I think that just means it time to be replaced.
holy crap! Just called my local dealer to get prices on the hoses and coolant. They quoted prices of $16 each for hoses and $13/gallon on anti-freeze but when I called their service dept to get price on the actual work, they wanted $475! Is it really that labor intensive?
No, that’s silly!
Make sure you have the hose, new antifreeze(50/50 mix with water), and new clamps if the old ones look unusable.
1- on a cool engine, drain antifreeze; you don’t have to drain it all…just make a guess at when the level has gone below where the hose is. The drain valve is on the bottom of the radiator(it’s pretty handy to get to).
2- remove old hose; a bit of lingering antifreeze will leak out, but not much.
3- install new hose with clamps.
4- top off the radiator with antifreeze/ water mix.
5- start motor and look for leaks; make sure temp. gauge behaves normally.
You’re done!
This is what I did…I would highly recommend using a manual and/ or talking to others for their opinions too.
Funny thing is that it seems that it is not as simple as you would think.
Helm’s manual suggest:
remove radiator cap, loosen plug and drain radiator
remove drain bolt from the front side of cyclinder block to drain block and heater
apply liquid gasket to drain bolt threads and reinstall with new washer
tighten radiator drain plug
remove, drain and reinstall reservoir, fill halfway with water then top off with coolant
add anti-freeze and water mixture
loosen air bleed bolt, then fill the raidator to the bottom of filler neck, tighten bleed bolt when coolant starts to run out w/o bubbles
with radiator cap off, start engine and run til fan goes on 2x, then if necessary add more coolant mix
replace cap and run engine to check for leaks
As you can see, it does not seem as simple as draining, swapping hoses and filling
Here is another guys opinion on how it should be done:
Engine Coolant
From: Robert Lee
I had a bad experience once doing what the manual says to do, namely removing the drain plug from the engine block. I wasn’t able bolt it back on all the way. Also, it’s sometimes hard to get at. What I think works just as well if not better is the following:
o Remove drain plug from radiator, drain from the radiator.
o Put the plug back on disconnect the return hose to the radiator (upper hose on my car) leave the hose that supplies coolant to the engine/water pump attached (bottom hose on my car.)
o Turn on the heater - slide the control to red for hot - to open up the pathway to the heater core/radiator inside the pass cabin.
o Fill your radiator up with whatever you want to use to flush the radiator and engine with (distilled water or 50/50 water/coolant) and have another a gallon or so ready.
o Make sure the return hose, which is disconnected now, empties into an appropriate container (or the driveway if you don’t mind) run your engine until the engine thermostat opens and coolant begin to flow into the engine out via the return hose; as this is happening, you’ve got to continually fill the radiator (leave the cap off) because the coolant isn’t returning to the radiator.
o When you’re satisfied that they flush out all the old coolant, turn off the engine. reconnect the return hose and bleed the system by loosening the bleed bolt and running the engine until no bubbles can be seen in the stream of coolant running out of the bleed thing top off the radiator and the recovery tank.
If you use water to flush, you will have to have flush the water too, so flushing with a new 50/50 mix (or whatever is right for you) of distilled water and coolant works best. Once you’re done flushing it, the stuff in the engine and radiator is new, in the right proportions, and ready to go. If you do use water (to save money), fill the radiator with water, but use a 50/50 mixture to replace the water as it’s circulates into and out of the engine. Hopefully the 50/50 stuff will displace all the water. It won’t be exact, but so what?
could not get the lower hose clamp off. what else do i need to take off to get better access to this thing?
remove the upper radiator mounts and you can pick up the radiator slightly without having to disconnet the fans and you should be able to get to that da*n :mad: stock spring clamp that is hard to get due to the lower rad. support. Good luck.
Originally posted by J&S Teg
remove the upper radiator mounts and you can pick up the radiator slightly without having to disconnet the fans and you should be able to get to that da*n :mad: stock spring clamp that is hard to get due to the lower rad. support. Good luck.
Thanks,
I wussed out and gave up on the lower hose. I just changed the upper, flushed and filled. I’m just leave this stuff to the pros from now on since I can’t even do the simplest thing changing out a freakin hose. Still got it mess with the fast idle valve. I’m sure that’s gonna be fun too.
Re: radiator hose SWOLLEN
My teg experienced a similar problem recently. I took it to the mechanic cause I had a weird fluctuating idle in park. The mechanic popped open the hood and said ‘Whoah! Look at that!’ ((Points to upper radiator hose)) ‘Looks like a snake swallowing a chicken!’. That’s when I learned what a radiator hose was (obviously I’m not very familiar with vehicles, but this board is one helluva education! and yes, the radiator hose was very swollen).
Upper Radiator Hose = 16.25
Labor = 48.00
I’m not so sure if these other items were related to the swollen radiator hose issue, but he found these other issues:
Air Filter change (I’ve never changed or cleaned it since I bought the car 2 years ago) = 18.99 for part, no labor charge
Clean Throttle Body = no labor charge
Carb Cleaner = $6.50 (my cousin said this part was a rip off, oh wells 6.50 aint no biggie)
I had a basic tuneup done at the same time, but unfortunately they didn’t itemize it, so I don’t know which fluids were changed or topped off, (I haven’t bothered to check, the only thing I do know for sure was that they changed out the sparkplugs cause I saw the old parts). I wrote up the above issues in case they might help point to possibly related areas for the swollen radiator hose. Oh, and yes, the fluctuating idle is gone.
Just to let you guys know, low coolent levels will cause a fluctuating idle.