Last Lemming

In the process of doing a clutch job I replaced the heater valve which necessitated the draining of the coolant.

Usually I get the nose up crack the bleed screw and fill till it starts to come out of the bleed screw. Not this time and I don't have a good reason why, but this time I filled the coolant till the max line, ran the engine for about 5 min and then opened the radiator cap (upon which I heard a vacuum like sound) and filled in more coolant up to the full mark.

I then took the car out for a 5 min test drive. Clutch was fine. I pulled up on the ramps to bleed the coolant system and when I turned the car off a heard a sound akin to putting a playing card in the spokes of a bicycle but if the card was made of rubber. This lasted about 3 seconds then coolant spilled out all over the floor of the garage.

After inspection it appeared the lower radiator hose was cut by the fan blades. I know I had at least 1/2" of clearance between the fan and the hose. So I assumed pressure had built up (maybe from overfilling the system?) made the hose expand into the fan and thus it was cut. So I ordered a new hose and installed it today.

Upon refilling I began to see coolant leak from the upper radiator hose. So I took it off and low and behold right where the fan blades are below this hose there is another hole that was cut into this hose.

Anyway, has anybody heard of something like this?

Btw, there is no oil in the coolant.

thomasmryan

I have heard of the power steering pulley chewing the lower hose when it isn't pushed onto the radiator nipple, but never the upper.

Is the radiator loose?

Last Lemming

Nope, nothing was loose or ill fitted.

thomasmryan

you may be working your way up to the weakened component trail.

mine was failed bleed nipple, failed cap.... then the radiator, then the heater valve, then the throttle housing O-rings. as the system starts holding more pressure, the 'fail' threshold is reached for the next item.

Tom M'Guinn

The cap "should" vent pressure long before it gets high enough to balloon out a hose that far. Maybe check the cap and post a picture in case the hoses are somehow wrong and you're missing it? Is this a turbo or N/A. I just looked on my turbo and the hoses both route safely away from the blades -- more than an inch of clearance at the closest point...

Last Lemming

It's a turbo. Radiator is new, radiator cap is new, water pump is new. Mind, it's been running fine up to this point when I had to drain and fill for the heater valve.

snb13

There's a hose clamp for the upper radiator hose. It attaches to the AFM mounting point above the radiator. Most are missing. I found out about it when my alternator sliced up my upper rad hose.

KVDR

My fan cut into the upper rad hose shortly after I reassembled everything.

It was a brand new hose from Pelican, but I don't think it was OE, so the dimensions might not have been ideal.

I re-installed the old one, although I cut a bit off one end so the bend would be further away from the fan.

No problems since.

Last Lemming

I just can't figure the circumstance that would cause the upper AND lower to be cut at the same time. The radiator is firmly in the right place.

Tom M'Guinn

Are the fans loose? Bad motor mounts tilting the engine into the radiator hoses under load?

Last Lemming

Motor mounts are new. Fans arnt loose, I double checked them.

Last Lemming

These are the upper and lower hoses. Each cut was the part of the hose that was closest to the fan blades and run parallel to the direction of blade travel.