Club 80-90 Forums

Hey all,

Currently replacing all my coolant hoses after some recent ruptures. While disconnecting the hoses from the long plastic pipes I found some metal inserts in the plastic pipes. At least the outside pipe's one is fully shot. Are these important and should I replace it, or can I just leave them out? I cant remember ever seeing them for sale anywhere.

Thanks!

As far as I'm aware these are part of the pipe and not available separately, they stop the pipe from crushing when the clips are tightened so doubt you would get a good seal without them.

Time to go stainless steel methinks.

They're integral to the pipe, originally a very tight interference fit. I think some aftermarket company has spun some replacements up, but I've not heard a lot about them.

Without the steel inserts providing the reinforcement and the retaining lip, you can't apply enough clamping force with the hose clamp to reliably hold the pipe on the smooth plastic tube. With each heat cycle, the rubber hose slowly shuffles off.


Replacement stainless steel coolant pipes are your answer here

I dont know why vw put them in the pipes, the original plastic is very tough, when doing a subaru conversion the rear pipe end is cut off and the rubber pipe is clamped on without problems.

I’ve run a few vans without the inserts with no issues

Thanks all for the reactions. I'll just run the one pipe without it for now, and see if that works. Then later I can try to find a machine shop to spin it up for me at a reasonable price.