Hose horrors

[PaulL]

I'm not really having a good week. On top of my rear window problems (still ongoing, see this thread that I hijacked, my trip down the motorway yesterday evening was interrupted by a rapidly rising temp gauge and a fair quantity of steam. Yep, a split hose!

I was able to pull over easily enough, and a short time later, thanks to the nice man from the AA, I was on my way again with a replacement bit of hose... It's the short piece that joins the metal pipe to the radiator valve unit, if you know where I mean (that's as technical as I get).

No lasting damage done, I think, and the AA used one of those testing thingys to check for exhaust gasses in the coolant - negative - so it looks like the head's ok...

What a week, though! I thought the TVR was supposed to be the one to give me trouble!

[Guest]

I'm not really having a good week. On top of my rear window problems (still ongoing, see this thread that I hijacked, my trip down the motorway yesterday evening was interrupted by a rapidly rising temp gauge and a fair quantity of steam. Yep, a split hose!

I was able to pull over easily enough, and a short time later, thanks to the nice man from the AA, I was on my way again with a replacement bit of hose... It's the short piece that joins the metal pipe to the radiator valve unit, if you know where I mean (that's as technical as I get).

No lasting damage done, I think, and the AA used one of those testing thingys to check for exhaust gasses in the coolant - negative - so it looks like the head's ok...

What a week, though! I thought the TVR was supposed to be the one to give me trouble!

One of those jobs that I am going to get done eventually is to get some of those nice blue heavy duty hoses - not sure what they are made of but are supposed to be the mutts n**ts.

Glad to hear that you seem to have got away with it though.

Cheers

[RobD]

One of those jobs that I am going to get done eventually is to get some of those nice blue heavy duty hoses - not sure what they are made of but are supposed to be the mutts n**ts.

Glad to hear that you seem to have got away with it though.

Cheers

Where would you buy those hoses from?

[slydog]

blue hoses blueeeeeeee

blue hose blueeeeeeeee i gotta have them tell me moreeeeee

[NiftyNev]

Try this link for info on the Blue Hose -

http://www.aeroquip.com/

There should be someone in the UK that stocks their products.

Neville

[super8simon]

Demon Tweeks sell various hoses in various colours. Samco do a nice line in blue. It ain't cheap though.

www.demon-tweeks.co.uk

Simon

[gemini]

Demon Tweeks sell various hoses in various colours. Samco do a nice line in blue. It ain't cheap though.

www.demon-tweeks.co.uk

Simon

just my opinion but i would leave the standard hose on, the reason is, if it does pressurise it will find the weakest spot, ie. the hose, which is cheap, failing that it could split the rad, or blow a core plug out, which are cheap but some are at the back of the engine and not that easy to get to

[Koi]

just my opinion but i would leave the standard hose on, the reason is, if it does pressurise it will find the weakest spot, ie. the hose, which is cheap, failing that it could split the rad, or blow a core plug out, which are cheap but some are at the back of the engine and not that easy to get to

sounds like sound reasoning to me

[Guest]

sounds like sound reasoning to me

And me, think I'll rethink the hose strategy.

Cheers

[NiftyNev]

just my opinion but i would leave the standard hose on, the reason is, if it does pressurise it will find the weakest spot, ie. the hose, which is cheap, failing that it could split the rad, or blow a core plug out, which are cheap but some are at the back of the engine and not that easy to get to

I disagree.The thermostat housing cap will be the weakest point.The cap has a release pressure of 90 kpa and the hoses if in good condition will be much higher than this.If the engine pressurises beyond the ability of the cap to release this pressure then it is allready too late to worry about.
Standard radiator hoses are very good quality and replacing them with the more expensive type is a personal choice.If you want blue hoses and can afford them then go for it.

Neville

[JimL]

Pauls hose did split, and if he had had a nice indestrucable blue one there what Gemini warns against would have happened??

[NiftyNev]

Pauls hose did split, and if he had had a nice indestrucable blue one there what Gemini warns against would have happened??

Yes the hose did split.Why did this happen?There is no mention of excess pressure causing this and if there was he would still have problems.The hose was probably stuffed and simply failed.

Neville

[PaulL]

Well, certainly the hose split, but I think it's more likely that it's down to old age rather than excess pressure.

However, I think the point was that although a blue hose may help prevent faults from splitting and perishing, when there is an incident (not like mine) which is down to excess pressure, is it best to "allow" that to blow a hose or a valve or something more serious? In my opinion, that should be the job of the valve.