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Boss man came in today saying his heater in his Kia Soditall 4x4 wasn't working. I suggested he check his coolant level.
Tea break came, so I went and had a look with him. Nothing seen in the top of the rad so he started filling with blue coolant. Several litres later I suggested it might be time to worry, so sent him to pick some more coolant up while I checked his hoses.
Imagine my surprise when I found his rad top hose was no longer connected to his engine! The hose clip had broken in two and the remains were sitting just under his stat housing, allowing the hose to blow off. I replaced the shoddy bit of cr@p with a decent stainless jubilee clip (which we keep in stock) and we continued to replace a further 5 litres of coolant!
Just checking the rest of the houses found another split clip where the same hose fed the rad! This one had cracked in such a way as to bite through the hose, so I cut 1/2" off and refitted it with another decent jubilee.
I suppose the moral of this story is check your truck for those shitty (but easy from a production point of view) cheap clips and replace if necessary with decent ones.
Or don't buy a Kia.
I told him to chuck away the big plastic trim they fit over the engine to hide coolant / oil leaks too, but he looked at me like I'd gone mad.
He'll learn...
I saved him a few grand today.
He owes me a pint.
At least.
Tea break came, so I went and had a look with him. Nothing seen in the top of the rad so he started filling with blue coolant. Several litres later I suggested it might be time to worry, so sent him to pick some more coolant up while I checked his hoses.
Imagine my surprise when I found his rad top hose was no longer connected to his engine! The hose clip had broken in two and the remains were sitting just under his stat housing, allowing the hose to blow off. I replaced the shoddy bit of cr@p with a decent stainless jubilee clip (which we keep in stock) and we continued to replace a further 5 litres of coolant!
Just checking the rest of the houses found another split clip where the same hose fed the rad! This one had cracked in such a way as to bite through the hose, so I cut 1/2" off and refitted it with another decent jubilee.
I suppose the moral of this story is check your truck for those shitty (but easy from a production point of view) cheap clips and replace if necessary with decent ones.
Or don't buy a Kia.
I told him to chuck away the big plastic trim they fit over the engine to hide coolant / oil leaks too, but he looked at me like I'd gone mad.
He'll learn...
I saved him a few grand today.
He owes me a pint.
At least.
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