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#241
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Thread Starter
#241
A bit of catchup. I discovered a coolant drip a little while ago, and it was driving me nuts trying to find it. It turns out that despite the fancy silicone hoses and fancy clamps, coolant was leaking at yet another plastic fitting. This time at the 3-way nylon fitting at the thermostat housing. Freaking plastic cooling system parts…
I had to buy the whole hose assembly to get the OEM fitting, and I initially assembled it again with the same hoses and clamps assuming the slightly out of round plastic was the issue. Even tightened the clamps to spec with a torquewrench. Completely reassembled and purged the system. Held perfect pressure and vacuum so I filled and started the car, and…it leaked again…😭
Coolant was very slightly weeping from the lower hose. Said hell with it, drained and broke everything down again and reassembled with the OEM rubber hoses and clamps, did the full test, purge and fill again, and finally, it’s no longer leaking.
Either the silicone hoses aren’t all they are cracked up to be, or the plastic fittings just aren’t up to the clamping pressure. Either way, it’s back to OEM rubber, at least on those two hoses. Now I just hope the other silicone hose connections aren’t going to slowly start failing as well anywhere they’re connected to plastic.
As a sidenote, the Proalloy coolant header tank with its old school metal radiator cap is a night and day improvement over the crappy plastic OEM radiator cap, especially when it comes to hooking up the vacuum fill
Bonus pic, my awesome rain gutter oil change method to clear the Swave 4-point brace that’s in the way of the oil drain
I had to buy the whole hose assembly to get the OEM fitting, and I initially assembled it again with the same hoses and clamps assuming the slightly out of round plastic was the issue. Even tightened the clamps to spec with a torquewrench. Completely reassembled and purged the system. Held perfect pressure and vacuum so I filled and started the car, and…it leaked again…😭
Coolant was very slightly weeping from the lower hose. Said hell with it, drained and broke everything down again and reassembled with the OEM rubber hoses and clamps, did the full test, purge and fill again, and finally, it’s no longer leaking.
Either the silicone hoses aren’t all they are cracked up to be, or the plastic fittings just aren’t up to the clamping pressure. Either way, it’s back to OEM rubber, at least on those two hoses. Now I just hope the other silicone hose connections aren’t going to slowly start failing as well anywhere they’re connected to plastic.
As a sidenote, the Proalloy coolant header tank with its old school metal radiator cap is a night and day improvement over the crappy plastic OEM radiator cap, especially when it comes to hooking up the vacuum fill
Bonus pic, my awesome rain gutter oil change method to clear the Swave 4-point brace that’s in the way of the oil drain
