Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2011 12:07:49 -0800
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Which coolant hoses to replace on an 85 1.9 L motor?
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I only find a few cooling system parts to be chronically weak or failure
prone.
on hoses ....definitely the one going off the forward end of the right
cylinder head. Those get a lot of heat and are failure prone with age. It's
about 20 inches, long, starting out roughly 1 and 1/4 in ID ..tapering to
heater hose size.
the two straight short ones ....the one on the left by the water pump
...those hold well actually, but check it.
Same for the short straight one that goes in the pipe that goes across under
the crank pulley ..I've seen a few of those split.
the plastic large hose junction on the firewall..
those love to break off the bleeder hose fitting. Just look at it funny or
bump it, and it'll break.
One guy's dog jumped on his while he was working the engine even.
the main hoses ..the 4 large ones going around the engine .
I have yet to see any of those fail ...ever, on about a hundred and fifty
1.9 equipped Vanagons.
I have lots of good spare ones of those.
for the hoses on the right side there...there are 'two kinds' of
85's...early one with smaller OD metal main coolant pipes, and 'later 85's'
with larger OD plastic main coolant pipes.
speaking of plastic main coolant pipes ..they like to leak at the ends
sometimes ..the metal inserts slide out of place.
T fittings for the rear heater ..
those come in metal, which rust, or plastic, which gets brittle and breaks
easily.
Definitely a weak area to check.
Same for the rear heater core.
that's it mainly.
Personally I think 'all new hoses' as a job is a rip off somewhat..
some of these hoses are the best ever made on any car ever ..
so I'm reluctant to replace them with possibly not-as-good-as-the-original
hoses.
And I just want to get full life out of them. I just carry some good used
spare ones on trips...
and as I said, I've never seen the large ones fail.
hoses that get the most heat..
on engine, like those on top of it ..those wear and fail the most.
anytime a hose feels mushy and soft, it's due.
I could almost say 'the hoses aren't the weak area.'
( that one is though ..at the front of the right head ) ..
it's kinda worth it to take the heater hoses apart at the T's for the rear
heater ..
those T's are a weak area.
I'd say I'm not in the same category as most 85 vanagons owners..
as I have 4 parts vans, five 1.9 wbxr engines ...and boxes of parts.
....even more.
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Koerner" <rjkinpb@SBCGLOBAL.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2011 10:33 AM
Subject: Which coolant hoses to replace on an 85 1.9 L motor?
All this talk about hoses is getting me worried. YES, when I take my car to
the mechanic for something and if he recommends a hose need replacing, I do
it without hesitation. (Only has happened twice.) My 85 Vanagon just turned
190,000 miles; I use it for extended road trips; reliability is most
important. (I do carry some silicon rescue tape but still am nervous,
starting to take the fun out of it).
So..What to do? I think some of the hoses on a 1.9 L motor are NLA (per Van
Again's diagram I saw a while back). Are there some hoses that are more
likely to fail than others? I imagine so. Just replace them all? Seems like
a monumental (expensive) task. Or, just take it to mechanic for "Hose
inspection & replacement" and let him be the judge? I don't know if I have
the experience to make a good judgment myself on whether a hose is safe and
sound or not; as pointed out by David, sometimes things are not so obvious
or may be "hidden" on the underside and so forth.
Seriously, one of the main reasons I am leaning towards a Subie 2.2
conversion is for the coolant hose issue on my 26 year old motor. From what
I've read, things are somewhat simplified, or at least available.
And to me, rummaging around FLAPS to try to find a hose that's "close
enough" to be able to make it work sounds like a nightmare. I just wouldn't
feel confident (guess it's done all the time though).
So looking for advice, insight, experience, recommendations on this issue.
And it must be an issue for many of us who don't just like to "wait" until
it breaks on some lonesome hiway bringing an abrupt end to an otherwise
long-awaited road trip.
Rich
San Diego
--- On Thu, 2/24/11, David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET> wrote:
From: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject: Re: Sealant necessary for coolant hoses?
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Date: Thursday, February 24, 2011, 9:34 AM
At 02:32 AM 2/24/2011, M. Jade wrote:
>Thanks a lot for everyone's quick reply to the question. The coolant
>hose is original. It was never replaced despite the thermostat has
>been replaced twice and the hose was disconnected and reconnected
>many times. I noticed that the hose is not as flexible as when it
>was very new. But it is not hardened to a point to need replacement.
You're talking about a twenty six year old hose here that's been
subjected to innumerable pressure/heat cycles. VW hoses are of very
high quality but they do have their limits, and the limits I've
observed (n of approximately ten) have all but one involved a roughly
3/8" long slit in the longitudinal direction of an old but apparently
healthy hose. No loss of flexibility apparent in any case. In the
anomalous case the hose (still flexible) split transversely at the
nipple. It was shortened a half inch and one week later split
again. This was the odd hose on the 2.1l that has a skinny end going
to the ring manifold surrounding the engine hatch and a very short
fat right-angled end going to the engine. The failure was at the engine.
My point is that these hoses are way past their intended service
lives, no matter what they look like. I'm sensitive to this, since
the '89 I got a couple years ago had four coolant blowouts in the
first four months of driving, all in hoses that looked and felt perfectly
good.
Yours,
David
