• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Wedge BOOM - check your hoses

Share this page

GBRandy

GBRandy

Jedi Knight
Country flag
Offline
Out for a run. Stopped at the grocery story and found a HUGE puddle under my car. :(

First time since I bought the car in 1987 that I had to have it trailered home. ****

It was my fault. Never checked the lower radiator hose and it was WAY overdue....Check them hoses kids.

badRadhosesml.JPG
 
I keep a set of hoses stashed in the center of the spare tire, for just such an emergency. Quicker than waiting for a flatbed, and you can go on with your trip.
 
haha. Perhaps that works in a TR3.

Access to this hose requires a floor jack...and I do NOT crawl under a car lifted by a floor jack without jack stands. Too many things to drag around for this. So...trailer it was.

Shame on me for not catching it before it went. That hose was T O A S T.

OK though. The guy that showed up is a Trap shooting friend and I have AAA ;)
 
Same thing happened to me last year, except it was the top radiator hose. Which also requires working under the car, and making up about a 2 or 3 foot set of extensions to get the clamp off. I had replaced all the hoses when I got it, except that one because of the difficulty getting to it. It looked fine, but it turned out to be hard as a rock, and split almost the entire length.

You can actually do the lower hose without getting under the car, but you have to take the alternator and probably the air cleaner box out.
 
Last edited:
Yikes! That hose looks like it was probably on it since new! Thankfully the radiator was replaced in my wedge, and the hoses with it, just last summer. The bottom hose is something that I honestly forget about completely for some reason when checking stuff after winter.
 
GBRandy said:
Access to this hose requires a floor jack...and I do NOT crawl under a car lifted by a floor jack without jack stands.
Click to expand...
Sometimes ya do what ya gotta do. I've been known to jack it up with the original jack and let a tire down on top of the spare tire (which gets just enough room to reach under a TR3 enough to change the bottom hose); or even drive up a curb and then do the same thing (which gives just barely enough room to crawl under).

But I'll admit, these days with a cell phone & AAA card, I'm somewhat more likely to wait for the flatbed. Things were different back when the nearest phone might be a 10 mile walk.
 
Hagerty is great. My clutch went out in my 59 Bugeye last year,luckily in my garage and I needed it towed on a flatbed truck about 30 miles to my mechanic. I called Hagerty and they said my policy only covered 10 free miles, but I could upgrade to the premium policy of 50 free miles and they would prorate the cost to the end of the policy period.That only cost me $13 and they said just wait a couple of days before having it towed so the upgrade would be in effect. I wound up using them again for another tow before my current policy expired so I got two tows for 13 bucks extra. This year I renewed the policy with the 50 free miles.
 
None of which helps if you happen to be driving beyond cell phone range. Yosemite valley, for example.
 
59diamond said:
Aren't there any pay phones at the Lodge?
Click to expand...
I'm sure there are. But if a little creativity and effort will get me back on the road now; as opposed to walking 5 miles, waiting for a wrecker to show up, then being towed to the nearest LBC mechanic, waiting for the parts to come in ... well, you get the picture. I guess maybe we weren't down in the valley proper anyway, just one of the roads nearby. Still no cell phone reception, though.
 
Darrell_Walker said:
Same thing happened to me last year, except it was the top radiator hose. Which also requires working under the car, and making up about a 2 or 3 foot set of extensions to get the clamp off. I had replaced all the hoses when I got it, except that one because of the difficulty getting to it. It looked fine, but it turned out to be hard as a rock, and split almost the entire length.

You can actually do the lower hose without getting under the car, but you have to take the alternator and probably the air cleaner box out.
Click to expand...

Yup. you are correct. Had to pull the air cleaner box, alternator and the alternator bracket to put this hose on. Pain in the butt.

Running though...and seems to be cooler as wel.
 
I replace my radiator hoses about every 8 years. But now that I think about it, I've never replaced my heater hoses. Can these blow like a rad hose?

Bob
 
Bob,

They can although I've had fewer problems with them. I usually replace all at the same time.

Scott
 
Back
Top