Rotten hoses plague me.

while coming home after picking up my sister in Slidell, LA, i noticed that my engine was racing for no apparant reason at an idle at a traffic light. as i drove down the road, i noted how hot my temperature guage read. i pulled into a gas station and popped my hood and discovered coolant spewing from a hose i had no idea carried coolant. it is just beneath the air intake and goes between that manifold in the back and another steel line eventually returning to the radiator or engine block somewhere.

anyway, i was fortunately across the street from a pepboys, the nation's worst automotive parts store. the poor young guy in the back really had no idea what i was looking for. i eventually asked a guy up front and he said the generic hose in the back marked "fuel hose" was the same thing, heat resistant and all. it's just a plain heat hose with a 1/4" diameter interior. it's only about 5 inches long. the original 15 year old part fell apart in my hand as i carried it across the street to pep boys after getting it off. i really ought to pull everything rubber from my engine compartment and replace it post haste before something springs a leak while i'm on the interstate somewhere.

Yeah, I didn't wait till I had a failure. I replaced every single coolant hose with OEM parts.

Yeah, I didn't wait till I had a failure. I replaced every single coolant hose with OEM parts.

how much would the main long hose between the engine block and bottom of the radiator cost me if i got the one molded to fit my car?

it almost looks as if i could do it with just strait hose so long as i don't kink it, but there are 2 large bends, so i'm afraid of kinks.

i've discovered that the aforementioned hose, and 2 other 1/2" heater hoses are also quite rotten. i've got to replace them tonight or tomorrow, no question about it. they make that rotten plastic with rotten interwoven netting breaking and cracking on the inside sound when you gently (or haphazardly) squeeze them. not good.

Well the OEM part is like $20, a little less at parts stores. GL

Q: do you think it matters when replacing hoses if its OEM or a decent hose company?

it's a damn rubber hose. go aftermarket, and when possible use the generic non molded kind. only use molded where you know it will kink like the 2 major lines going to and from the radiator. and i'd never go to honda just for a rubber hose.

Your right it really doesn't matter much if it's an OEM hose or aftermarket. I just wanted to keep the factory look and routing them was a snap, espically some of the heater hoses. :)

i learned an important lesson while changing one of the heater hoses. it's in the rear and it's either the send or return for the heater coil itself. it attaches to a thin copper or aluminum pipe just below a bracket where the fuel line comes in. i was wondering why it was so damn hard to get that hose off when i discovered that i had flattened that pipe with my channel locks (pliers). i decided to gnaw through it with a razor knife and remove it that way, but even that was a pain. then i had to reshape the pipe ever so carefully with a screwdriver.

glad i won't have to do this again for a few years.