I haven't been on here in awhile but this car is driving me nuts. I'm pretty sure one of the heater core lines split and draining coolant. The only time any of my vehicles sees a garage is for inspection, I do all of my own work. I've been looking for a way to get to these lines for two days with no luck. So far I've removed the inner fender, tried from underneath, and from the top with no luck. I'm completely stuck on this one. If anyone has done this or knows how to I'd appreciate some advice. Thanks in advance.

02' X Type. 2.5
126,000mi

 

HI seu83. You must have missed my thread a little bit further down the list. I am in the same boat as you on the hoses at the heater core. I have the intake plenum off, the car on the lift and I can see no way to access these lines. I have one of those remote hose clamp pliers, the kind with the extension cable and I can't get that in there from the top, side or the bottom. The dealer was kind enough to send me the service manual section on removing the heater core and all this shows is a drawing of the three hoses on the core - inlet, outlet and drain, which then says remove the hoses. A fat lot of good that did!

Between you and me we have about 130 views on the two threads we have started without a single reply! Has no one ever done this repair? The service manager at the dealer listed the repair at $250 PER HOSE! They weren't totally sure that the labor should be applied twice or if just the parts would double. They did forward the section of the service manual at no charge, however. Somebody on this forum has had to have done this repair. Help!

Regards

 

Don't give up yet. I might have the answer by the end of the day. I will be back.

 

OK, job done. Here's what worked for me...

First, getting the hoses on and off at the heater core is the difficult part, the rest is easy. I removed the upper intake manifold to try to gain access from the top, but in the end was only a minor help and probably can be left on. Access to the core hose connections must be done from the bottom. The key to getting these off is the following tool -

OEM/Hose clamp pliers (25246) | Hose Clamp Pliers | AutoZone.com_

You can thread the jaws of this tool past the obstructions and draw the tines of the clamps together and move them out of the way. I then used the extra long flat blade screwdriver from Harbor Freight -

2 Piece 16" Go Thru Screwdriver Set

to gently pry the hoses off of the core tubes. The bottom "overflow' hose comes off first and is removed from the car to gain access for the jaws of the clamp pliers to the upper hoses which carry the coolant. I found threading the plier jaws in from the left hand side of the car toward the clamps in the center of the car to be the most productive approach. Once the clamps are off and the hoses pried off the hoses come out easily from the top (Duh!).

Reassembly is the reversal of disassembly for the most part. I did the hose on the right hand side of the core first and connected it at the top first so I wouldn't inadvertently attach it to the core at the wrong angle and have to twist it or kink it to attach to the top connection once the bottom was in place. Hose pliers from HF were useful for getting this first hose on the outlet tube from underneath the car as was a squirt of WD40 on the inside of the hose.

3 Piece Long Reach Hose Grip Pliers

I then used the cable clamp pliers to compress the spring clamp which I had placed on the hose before installation well up from the end so it wouldn't interfere with sliding the hose on the outlet tube. With the clamp compressed by the cable pliers I was able to slide it forward and over the tube flare and then release the cable pliers securing the hose connection.

The second hose was a little more difficult as I had to reach in from the top to get the hose started on the core tube and the clearance provided by the absent upper intake manifold proved useful here. Same preparation as the first hose - preinstalled clamp well up from the actual part of the hose which would contact the core tube, WD40, etc. Worked the hose on the rest of the way from underneath the car with the big HF screw driver, pinched the clamp with the cable pliers, slid it over the tube flare and released it closed.

The overflow tube proved troublesome to get back on so I used a worm drive band clamp in place of the spring clamp here with a long skinny screwdriver to tighten. All looks good at this point.

I have no association with any of the sources mentioned above. Good luck!

This is where having

 

Thanks for posting this fix. I haven't been on in a few because I've been chasing down problems with my truck to, lol. I'm going to go ahead a start in on this tomorrow morning and hopefully can get it done. Thanks again.


Oh one other thing. There are 2 small black hard plastic tubes on the intake near the brake booster. I can't seem to get these to disconnect. I didn't force them to much because I didn't want them to break. Is there some kind of trick to these?

 

Take a small flat blade screw driver and push down the center plastic ring on the piece that is in the manifold and the fitting will pop or easily pull out.

Gene

 

WOW I feel stupid lol. Thanks again.

 

Dear All, I just wanted to share my experience with this.
In the case of my 2003 3.0 X-Type the Inlet Heater Hose ruptured and had to been replaced. While it seemed impossible to access its attachment to the heater core from the direcion of the engine bay, it turned out that it is quite easily accessible from under the car.
My mechanic did not need any specific tool, he only used a simple hose clamp plier. There was some kind of a plate partially covering it, that was held by 1 or 2 screws, then he removed a hose under the hoses in question, as far as remember that is for the condensated water of the AC system. It was EMPTY. Than he was able to access and replace the Inlet Heater Hose. It did not take more then 15 minutes to remove and another 10 to install the new hose.