Radiator Hose Question

[Garry Moss]

Hello Fellow Trackers



My 2004 ST is approaching 100K and it still has the original water hoses. My question is ....what is the recomended mileage to change them. Thanks!

 

[Bob McDonald]

I have 192K miles with the original hoses and they still look good. If you don't live in an area that exposes your Trac to an environment that is hazardous to rubber, and they still look good, there is no reason to replace them. Now if you were going to disconnect them for some other maintenance reason, your could perhaps change them for preventive maintenance reasons.

 

[rod denton]

check for dry cracking and tight clamps :banana:

they should be soft and pliable with no sign of bulging and or rubs /chaffing

 

[EddieS'04]

IMO, with that milage and years. Replace them. They can start cracking internaly. Where you cant see. The rubber does age with the heat. I have seen hoses that were aged, that looked good externaly. That blew out, because the internal linning was shot. The vehicle had an overheat issue. The inner lineing and cords gave way. The outer lineing was not strong enough to hold the pressure from over heating.



Cheap insurance to replace them.

 

[J T 3]

I have 180K on my 2003 and they are still in good shape. I check them occasionally and until they give me trouble I'm leaving them alone.

 

[Gavin Allan]

I am amazed that you folks have gotten such long life with your radiator hoses! I recall when i was a kid, if they didn't blow by 40-50k miles, that was real good. Many folks replaced them every 3-4 years as preventative maintenance.

 

[Richard L]

Gavin,

I agree. Years ago it was common to recommend replacing all the hoses and belts after 3 years because belts and hoses were more suseptable to deterioration based on time, and not so much on the mileage.



...Rich

 

[Jeffksf B]

People used to change plugs every 30,000miles and adjust points in the ignition to.

 

[Garry Moss]

I think I may just do it for piece of mind, I have some long camping trips this summer, would hate to be wrenching on the side of the road :O)

 

[Garry Moss]

So now that I am going to replace them, should I start with the upper or lower first and also how much coolant am I going to lose :O)

 

[EddieS'04]

When you pull the bottom hose you will loose at least half, of the coolant.

 

[Gavin Allan]

Lose all the coolant, flush it out, and change it.