Replacement Oil Cooler Hoses

[roy666]

OilCoolerHose Blow Outc.jpg

Hi Guys - just a little saga that you may wish to be aware of. Had a catastrophic blow out of a oil cooler hose.

[roy666]

SJSHoses Fitted.jpg

Decided to replace both of them and SJS seemed to have a good replacement (new) item. Purchased both hoses at £69.80 each..plus the post and packaging of course. The car was in for a service with LotusBits so asked them to stick the new hoses on. They did, but not before checking with me just as they were about to put the hoses on saying they were not fit for purpose (the pipe angles leading to the engine were wrong, and the feed hose was far to long in length). I told them to fit them anyway because I needed the car asap. Bit of a mess inside as you can see and the wheel inner arch did not fit properly, the wheel has worn away a nice hole. Contacted SJS and told then of the problem; initially they were reluctant to accept that the hoses were not fit for purpose. They said send them back and we’ll check them out.

[roy666]

Pirtek Hoses fitted.jpg

I took my old hoses to a Pirtek outlet in Peterborough; £28 quid later they very easily refurbished the metal connectors and replaced the hoses with new material – just excellent. I took the old unfit ones off and put the new (old) puppies on. Then contacted SJS to say that I would be sending the unfit hoses back to them. A week later having heard nothing from SJS phoned them up; took them a while to find the hoses (I sent them tracked, signed for, so I had the name of the individual at SJS who had received them). Eventually they found the package and very quickly a full refund was made plus the postage costs. What a faff and a perfect waste of money and time! Not sure what SJS is doing with their replacement oil cooler hoses… but they need to go back to the drawing board. Cheers Mike

[Steve A]

This is a common problem which could easily cost you an engine,
so if anyone reading this doesn't know the state of their hoses, get them checked ASAP
There are plenty of hose replacement firms around Pirtek being one of them

[Simon_P]

so if anyone reading this doesn't know the state of their hoses, get them checked ASAP

]
And if they are the old type get them changed without question. You cannot see if they are OK or not.

[Rambo]

Pirtek is normally my "go to" for any problems like this

[TorqueHorse]

When I went to a local hydraulic hose shop in town they suggested just using a jubilee clip type of setup. As long as it is under 300 psi (which is like twice the pressure that the oil gauge goes up to) he said this type of hose & fitting should be fine in-lieu of the ferrule . Before I start snipping into it, anyone have suggestions/concerns why this wouldn't work?

[dapinky]

Well, all I can tell you is that I really really hope that it works okay........ as mine is made up of a selection of hose fittings (for the new oil cooler radiator) with fir-tree 'push-on' fixings which are considered to be good for many times the pressures involved, and some jubilee clamps holding pipe onto the original metalwork......

...... and it's been like it for over 10 years, plenty of miles (road and track)

[TorqueHorse]

Thanks, @dapinky. My biggest concern is that I was missing something about how the oil is 'pressurized' to go through the cooler and that it might be somehow significantly higher than what is reading on the dash. Won't look as pretty, but for 1/10th of the price, seems worth it (to me) for giving a shot.

[Simon_P]

No, it's a bad idea the rubber relaxes and the clamp will eventually loose it's tension.

It might be OK advice for a tractor, but it isn't suitable for this application.

[dapinky]

Simon,

I hear what you say, but have 2 observations......

...... (1) the hose that I used is claimed to not deform under use/temperature/pressure (some multi-layered stuff specific to the application)

...... (2) the metal bits have a raised 'ring' around them, and this is where the actual seal is made - the jubilee clip merely compresses the pipe behind the ring to keep it in place.

..... oh, and a 'bonus' #(3).....

it can't be any different than using a swaged ferrule, as that is simply a squished bit of metal which squashes the rubber pipe..... and that is probably why they go wrong to start with.

I think that a combination of modern materials, lower use and future checking/maintenance will aleviate any potential problems with it.

[TorqueHorse]

Thanks for the discussion; this is why I posted. So what I didn't account for is the Temp of the oil, not just the Pressure, and how that might affect the hose (and clamp?). I just looked through the WSM again and didn't see any specs on operating temps/pressures. Anyone know this info? I'm betting it can get higher than 212* F with that Turbo chugging though, so that rules out the hose I have. Also, I got lost in the internet about swage vs compression fittings. I think I learned that swage can withstand higher pressures? FWIW though, this 'oil cooler and hose' company has Jubilee clamps for it's installs (which are mostly retrofit/measure in the field, kind of thing).
So...Just buy a real replacement part, or if you are cheap, make sure you get a hose that is rated for higher temp and pressure oil, and get a swage fitting, or if you are really cheap and like to pay less now (but maybe more later for expensive repairs), use a jubilee hose clamp and keep on top of it.

[dapinky]

I used Aeroquip FC598 hose, (rated for 17bar of pressure), with the 'correct' adapters/ends to connect to the new setrab radiator, and pushed onto the original metal pipes and held with jubilee clips at the engine end of the pipe.....

.... although to be completely honest, I used the jubilee clips because that is what I have always used on oil cooler instalations, and didn't really give it an awful lot of consideration for this application.

[Simon_P]

Don't get me wrong jubilee clips have their uses. But have you noticed that modern cars don't leak.