help! Advice needed after split coolant hose

[dans]

Hi all,

Driving through town today and suddenly experienced a large amount of steam out of the bonnet. Cue much pointing and some sniggering from surrounding pedestrians! And guy on bike shouting Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious... helpful!!

Anyway turns out a hose had split. Short bent length that goes from metal pipe out of Turbo to passenger side of engine, guessing water pump?

Managed to get some pipe from helpful garage but not quite stiff enough and tends to fold on it self when bent. But managed to hold water and get me home. Looking to get to garage on monday for proper fix.

Question is: Are there other things I should be doing? Ie. to make sure that the coolant is circulating correctly to the turbo etc..?

Anything else that should be checked?

Cheers,
Dan

[chrisP]

Hi Dan
Was it a case of the hose perishing? If it was a replacement should be fine. However if its not keep any eye out for too much pressure in the cooling system, sometimes this indicates a head gasket failure where combustion gases get into the water system and over pressurize it. Hopefully its not the case

Chris

[dans]

does'nt look like perishing.. looks like a large split.

Have literally just had the car serviced so whether something got disturbed. Would've thought they'd notice any heada gasket probs though...

Will try and get some pics up over the weekend. Won't be going much further than that with it otherwise...

Cheers,
Dan

[Paul.P]

Dan, might be time to invest in a set of silicone hoses, see the thread in upgrades, there still at the offer price !

[Andy C]

I had the same hose fail on mine a couple of months ago .. it had split at the block end right around the hose clamp. I repaired it in the short term with a generic pipe and it worked fine. This failure was the trigger for me to have a closer look at my entire cooling system .. which is currently in a state of rebuild.

I have now replaced all my hoses with the Samco set. Below the Turbo (in the same area) there are another couple of hoses for water return. On mine these were had also gone hard and appeared to be due to fail. I would agree that full replacement of these is an easy insurance policy. James at Amber is a good bloke .. mention LEC for your discount.

[niall]

Dans,
I have a set of the Samco hoses not yet fitted so if you run into difficulties bear in mind that I am only up in Worcestershire and would be happy to help.
Niall

[dans]

hi all,
Thanks for the replies. Certainly would be a good time to go to the Samcos but after service tyres etc bank says NO!

Thanks for your off niall, much appreciated.

From my very basic description, can anyone confirm if this might be the right part?
http://www.sjsportscars.co.uk/partsanda ... A100E6368S
Or which one it should be?
http://www.sjsportscars.co.uk/partsanda ... &srch=hose

Can't find any references from the manuals at all?

[Doug]

. . . And guy on bike shouting Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious... helpful!! . . .

Hillarious!

are you sure it wasn't Clemo?

[Monty]

but i will proberly go for the lotus hoses as they have been tested for 15 years unlike the samco.

I`ve not heard so much sh*te in all my life

[Specky]

but i will proberly go for the lotus hoses as they have been tested for 15 years unlike the samco.

I've not heard so much sh*te in all my life

Brand new Samco hoses against something that has probably been sat on a rack for 10 to 15 years...rubber, elastomerics, and time

IMHO It's a no brainer.

TTFN

[ESM]

I had the same pipe go on blue car (the bifurcated one) I had to get the Lotus because it happened just before the Samco ones appeared ( ) I would have jumped on the Samco ones had they been available at the time. I hesitate now only because I just shelled out £80 for a new Lotus one....

[dans]

80 POUNDS!!!!!

[Monty]

80 POUNDS!!!!!

and i was going to send the hose to jay_thomas for free but never got a PM of him

[Paul.P]

but i will proberly go for the lotus hoses as they have been tested for 15 years unlike the samco.

I presume this comment was either said in jest, or without much thought ?, as samco have a world wide reputation for the reliability of there hoses, perhaps thats why so many race teams use them !

[Darren]

hi all, it makes me wonder if they are so good why Lotus dont fit them to there current cars after all they use janspeed as an exhaust. its just that a performance car manufacturer such as Lotus usually pick up on these race proven brands. Samco is definatly the cheeper of the two.

I'm not sure how long you've owned your Elan or been a Lotus owner for that matter but as time and experiance will tell you : -

Everyone is cheaper than Lotus where parts are concerned.

So in the case of Samco hoses, I'd be surprised if Lotus would fit them as standard as the price will be more than rubber alternatives + what do they care about their lifespan ? i.e it only effects them if they break when they're in warrenty. Outside of the warrenty period & it's a license to print.

Lotus may well be the finest chassis/suspension builders/tuners in the world but when it comes to components, don't think for one minute that they pick the very best parts available, as at the end of the day, it's all about cost & how this impacts profit.

That said, I'm still on my orginal stock coolant hoses, mind you, when they do go, they'll be replaced with my Sampco hose set.

Darren.