Only time i will ever be glad that my car was pissing coolant

[julian]

Just finished a 200 km drive from the beach house.
As i start up the last stretch of hill i see the temp gauge start to rise. Thinking UH-OH the head gaskets are finally letting go (see my 'not a head gasket..please' thread in troubleshooting). Get home and the gauge is almost 3/4 of way up (way more than average for this car), i get out and smell that sickly sweet smell of steaming coolant and only need to bend at the knees to see the stuff running out over the gearbox.
Hunting around for the culprit it brushed the heater hoses where my arm was met with a sudden gush of steaming hot coolant, the damn things are old and crusty and the last hill seems to have cooked them down to their last breath where they popped off.

I trimmed them down and refitted the both of them but this is a very temporary fix while i get new ones.
I am banking on them being easily replaced with some new heater hose available over the counter at repco, or are they some model specific part?

Glad it wasnt the head gaskets...

[Suba]

good to hear it is something simple , you can just buy a length of the right diameter hose you need from any auto parts store.

Mike.

[El_Freddo]

I've had the same sort of thing happen with the temp gauge only going to 3/4 when there's a major problem under the bonnet... the only thing that told me it was bad was high speed pinging that got so bad that the car couldn't climb a small incline even after dropping gears... it was VERY hot... waited half an hour til we put more water in it... problem - dad didn't realise the radiator cap sits on an angle and put it back on with only one side gripping after a coolant check before we left... it took til seymour on the hume from lancefield for the problem to rear its ugly head...

After that trip both headgaskets were replaced to be on the safe side... All good, the car's in Port Douglas now...