Small Coolant Hose Leak

[Sandflea]

Every year when the weather starts getting colder, I wake up to a small pool of coolant on my driveway every morning. I took it into the local Dodge shop before my warranty ran out, and they supposedly fixed it. It didn't help. Here's a photo of the hose, with the dealer's repair from two years ago. What exactly is this for, why is there a rubber hose this close to the exhaust, and is there a better fix for the leak? Thanks in advance, Scott.

 

[JCockerill]

i had the same problem, dealer couldn't find it, and told me i had a bad rad cap. i ended up tightening the hose clamp down a bit on that same hose and the leak went away. check the clamps to see if they are loose.



all dealers by me suck, i fix the truck myself and it's still under warantee

 

[CKelley1]

more than half of the 06's had that problem. all three of ours had it.

 

[Sandflea]

Thanks for the replies. Simple enough to tighten the clamps, but it seems like there should be a better solution than a rubber washing machine hose with a couple of cheap hose clamps. I'm guessing that the purpose of the rubber connection is to account for vibration between the two metal tubes it connects.

 

[Sandflea]

Thanks Andres! I'll move the hose around a bit tonight and order the parts tomorrow. I've got an extra #4 line under my back seat as well, after unintentionally cleaning my engine compartment with diesel last year.

 

[Bob4x4]

Be forewarned the new hose is a smaller id and will take some finesse to install

 

[Sandflea]

Thanks for the heads up Bob. "finesse"... aka a few skinned-up knuckles. I can live with that.

 

[FOXY005]

My hose was fine but the metal pipe that comes up behind the turbo that comes from that hose, and connects to the hose that goes directly into the heater core rusted and blistered the pipe from the inside out right below the heater hose connection. Had to peplace the metal pipe at 122,00, anyone else had that problem ? I changed the collant at 100,000 with the recommended HOAT collant supposed to be non-corrusive. Also replaced the above mentioned hose at that time.

 

[Blakers]

My hose was fine but the metal pipe that comes up behind the turbo that comes from that hose, and connects to the hose that goes directly into the heater core rusted and blistered the pipe from the inside out right below the heater hose connection. Had to peplace the metal pipe at 122,00, anyone else had that problem ? I changed the collant at 100,000 with the recommended HOAT collant supposed to be non-corrusive. Also replaced the above mentioned hose at that time.

I had this same problem... the steel pipe between the horizontal line under the manifold, and the heater core started to scale up. I scraped the scale off so I could put some paint on it, but there were holes under the scale, so it started to leak immediately. I took it off and brazed all the holes up, pressure tested my work, shot it with some black paint, and put it back on. I bet it cost me about 2 bucks to fix!



Blake

 

[SRadke]

FWIW, those are silicone hoses. Your average rubber heater hose will not live under there.

 

[Sandflea]

Thanks SRadke... that's a useful thing to know. It might be worth sticking a spare in the boonie box. Scott.

 

[Cooper_D]

Wow this is why I love this site! Mine was leaking & I started to look online for pictures , with no luck, so I looked here under search-heater hose and there is a picture of my exact same problem.



Maybe TDR would let me buy a lifetime membership for a couple hundred bucks or so.

 

[Wingate]

I wonder if the blue silicone hose would work better. The stuff Im talking about is blue with a pinkish red liner inside, very flexible and extremely durable.

 

[Sandflea]

After Bob4x4's cautionary note, I decided just to tighten the clamps for now. I'll replace the hose when I upgrade the turbo and exhaust manifold. Definitely a tight squeeze in there. They were way loose, but no more leaks.

 

[DZinger]

Mine began leaking a couple of weeks ago - I called local dealer and was informed the part is under warranty after Dodge noted a problem with it. Mine goes to the shop today - easy enough to replace yourself, but when you don't have the time...



Also was told ( I have not verified this) that the improved, "special" replacement hose costs over $100 - must be pretty special!