G'day Gents,

I went for short drive this afternoon and parked my car when I got home. A short time later I noticed green coolant coming from underneath and spreading over my garage floor, buggerit!

I opened the bonnet and after things had cooled off a bit I flushed all the spilt coolant from the front of the engine area and restarted my car. A leak was immediately evident from the lower radiator hose at the join to the vertical hose. As the car warmed up the leak got worse of course.

I have ordered a replacment hose but a question I have is does anybody know of a procedure to repair such a leak or had any success in doing so?

I am thinking I might attempt a repair and keep the leaking hose as a spare.

Cheers,
Jeff.

 

Did you mean the little vertical line that comes off the main lower hose that goes into that big 'weld' of rubber Jeff? I'd worry a repair wouldn't hold there but interested to know if it's possible. I kept my old one when I put my NOS lower hose with heater plug in (using it as a coolant drain).

 

G'day Oliver,

Yeah that's the joint that I mean. My hose has sprung a leak at the T join and I was wondering whether I could use a tubeless tyre repair kit and drill a series of small holes along the leak and use a number of small plugs and glue. If tyre repair can hold around 36 psi in a tyre then maybe it can also hold cooling system pressure which less than half that.

I am still waiting for my hose to arrive so I might give it a go in the mean time.

Cheers,
Jeff.

P.S. If my new hose springs a leak I might get a metal T piece of suitable size made up and insert in into the lower hose.

 

G'day Gents,

Well it appears that my comment in my last post was prophetic as my new hose started leaking from the T join after only a few months and although it was well within the warranty period with the cost of returning it to the UK and with no guarantee that the replacement wouldn't leak I decided to have a metal T piece made.

I tried a couple of radiator repair workshops and none were interested when a friend suggested I try an exhaust workshop. So off I went with my dodgy hose and explained my problem and proposed solution and the exhaust tech said no problem and to leave it with them. They called the next day to say job done.

See pix.

Firstly, the dodgy hose and metal T piece, which is a 90mm piece of steel tube 51mm OD with a 15mm OD piece of steel tube welded to it.




Secondly, the dodgy hose with the T piece inserted all I need to do now is source a couple of hose clamps and fit it to the car. I will leave the clamps a bit loose until it is all in position and then tighten it up.



Cheers for now and a further report after a few days,
Jeff.

 

Good solution to the problem! I was able to order a new one (not cheap at $250) dollars, but I'll definitely be keeping my old one as a spare in case something happens!

 

Well it is all back together and not a leak to be seen.
The attached pic is of the T piece join which I cut from the faulty hose and you can clearly see the split on the upper left side of the welded join. You can also see that the small hose, which goes to the heater, is partially blocked by flaps of rubber.

A further symptom of my faulty hose was green coolant seeping from the fabric material hose reinforcement at the ends of the smaller pipe. The coolant must have entered the body of the hose and travelled through the cloth material until it exited at the hose end.



Cheers,
Jeff.

 

Gents,

I have just noticed on a parts suppliers site that some cooling hoses for later model Jags don't have bonded joints in in their T hoses but a fitting made up of several pieces of hose and a solid T piece and a number of clamps all very similar to my bottom hose solution.

Cheers,
Jeff.


https://www.terrysjag.com/product//C2C26769.html

 

Are you telling me the one hose is $250???