Thread: Hoses

5 years?.... I reckon you are still in the safe zone of the bath-tub curve for your hoses. We have a 10 year old D3 and the hoses look fine to me.

Signs of deterioration and imminent failure would be surface degradation/perishing/hairline splitting, as well as swelling at the hose ends. And I'm guessing you are seeing none of that. Having said that, its almost impossible to see some of the little hoses buried in the nether-regions.

Its fair to say that hose material and construction is much better these days.

Originally Posted by vee8auto

5 years?.... I reckon you are still in the safe zone of the bath-tub curve for your hoses. We have a 10 year old D3 and the hoses look fine to me.

Signs of deterioration and imminent failure would be surface degradation/perishing/hairline splitting, as well as swelling at the hose ends. And I'm guessing you are seeing none of that. Having said that, its almost impossible to see some of the little hoses buried in the nether-regions.

Its fair to say that hose material and construction is much better these days.

Be careful about using visual inspection to decide. My mechanic told me that unlike the old rubber hoses the later ones don't necessarily show deterioration and can give way despite looking ok. I had a top hose fail on my Pajero before I bought the D4. Another hose at the bottom of the radiator went about a month later and I asked why. His explanation was that they don't replace all hoses as they can be ok and it means the customer is wasting money. In hindsight I would have said replace them all if I had known as I am the cautious type. It is of course a judgement call.

Martin

I replaced a set of hoses on a D3 in the last week, (for the 2.7 you have to buy a whole spaghetti hose and thermostat assembly), not because they were split or damaged, but because there had been excessive corrosion in the cooling system.

The hoses (from a 2008) had started to soften, but still showed no cracks. I would have been confident in leaving them on for a couple more years at least, if it hadn't been for the cooling system (and engine) issues.

For the 3.0 Lindsay, you can at least buy smaller subassemblies of hoses, so it's not such a big financial burden.

However, I reckon you'll be fine for a few years yet.

Interesting post. I am currently losing coolant from somewhere beneath the reservoir on my 2012 D4 2.7 diesel. Not a lot at this stage, but enough to know that I have to fix it before venturing out of town.

At the moment, I can't see where it's coming from as the Traxide battery and tray is blocking access / vision to the area where I think the problem is. Will start to remove bits over the weekend and hopefully find the problem quickly, as I need to drive down to Perth in the next couple of weeks.

Take a close look at the coolant bottle itself. I've now seen 4 of those split along the seam.

Originally Posted by sheerluck

Take a close look at the coolant bottle itself. I've now seen 4 of those split along the seam.

Thanks Dave. Was thinking that myself. Have just pulled the Traxide battery / tray and headlight out to get a bit of access and I think I might be lucky this time. It appears to be the hose connection onto the bottle at the bottom nipple. Looks wet around the end of the hose, and I can see dripping coming from the bottom of the hose with a torch when the engine is running and for a short while after switching off. I'm hoping that the problem is just with the el-cheapo hose clamps that they use on just about everything these days. Will try replacing the clamp with a decent worm drive clamp (there's a box of them in the shed somewhere if I can find it). Hopefully, that should see the problem solved.



Just to be on the safe side in the future though - I might order a new bottle and keep it in the shed "just in case".

Thanks Guy's.


As usual good info for me to work with and make a more informed decision. Given that I have a 6 week trip coming up towing the camper I was wondering. I guess I will also have a chat to my service agent as well. They have been really good to me over the years and I do trust their advice.


My D4 is a 3.0L and I like the idea of being able to replace the hoses over a period of time as has been suggested. I reckon I will commence that process over the next 12 months.


From what I have read there are some hoses that are almost impossible to reach....is that really true?