Club 80-90 Forums

Hi chaps.
Broke down over the weekend, on my way up the M11, noticed the temperature gauge (which normally doesn't move) rising very quickly, (warning light doesn't work) slowed right down & pulled off the motorway, anyway to cut a very long story short, and to spare you the grief I got from the Missus , the main water hose had split right on the join to the engine so couldn't be fixed on the side of the road, lucky I caught it before any serious damage done, also lucky I decided to pay for the breakdown cover from Adrian Flux, so got a full recovery back home.

My question is , is there such a thing as a hose-repair-kit out there? The hose I need to replace will cost £106 !!, and I'm told that I'm lucky to have located one, so to carry a full set of new hoses would cost a fortune.

My advice to anyone who will listen is; Check your hoses before a journey, Keep an eye on your temperature gauge, and pull over straight away if it's too high, you can always drive off the motorway when the engine cools down enough, and make sure that you have full breakdown cover - a 10 mile max tow is no good to man nor beast.
I'd appreciate any advice on the hose thing.
Kevin.

look in to silicone hoses. expensive but when done forget about them.

£106 seems a lot. if its the front to rear ones id try second hand. you can get all sorts of tubes and hoses from motorsport outlets to do a repair as such although i`d advice you against cutting any corners with the cooling system.

No Lee, it's the hose from the top of the expansion tank, its got a couple of different size branches coming off it, (1600 diesel) which might be why it's so expensive, also it has to be shipped from Germany, but like you say, I don't want to cut any corners.

Don't think they make a silicon hose for this, it would need to be made specially, where would you get them from?

i've had this problem on the same engine, cheapest solution is to get a selection of copper fittings and fashion your own tube out of what you have left of the original, this may not be the approved solution and as lee says you are best of replacing it with a new one, but this has got me out of many situations at the roadside!

Hose repair kits are around and they do work,

had similar problem on my 1600 and is still holding 15,000 miles after the repair was done. I would suggest making one out of copper bits and descent jubily clips. dont use the cheap ones.

Jon

Red LED in the temperature gauge is for low coolant level warning, not high temperature.