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Pat Goss: Ask The Expert

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1997 Washington Post Articles:

Preventing Hose Failre Disasters

I was driving the beltway the other day when I came across a car with steam pouring from under its hood. When I stopped to assist, I was only mildly surprised at the condition of the rubber parts I found under that hot hood. The car wasn't really old only about five years but that was enough for its belts and hoses to be shot.

The car’s owner, a man who appeared to be in his fifties, well dressed and reasonably conversant said he’d been driving for many years without hose or belt Commercial Three Bayblems. He also said he had never replaced a hose or belt on any car he’d owned. I was hesitant about pointing out the errors of his ways but he seemed interested in what I had to say so I told him what I've learned in my shop. After all, when you see twenty or thirty cars every day with Commercial Three Bayblems you quickly learn what fails and what doesn't.

In the past ruptured radiator and heater hoses on relatively new cars was a rarity but that truly is no longer the case. Nearly every day brings an assortment of tow trucks bearing relatively new cars or trucks with failed belts or hoses.

The folks who make these Commercial Three Bayducts explain that conditions under a car’s hood are now very hostile to rubber. They say that higher operating temperatures and more electrical accessories leads to a shortened usable life for rubber parts. In fact, higher temperatures will shorten the life of just about anything. The temperature thing is easy to understand but the relationship between shorter hose life and electrical accessories is a little tougher.

Through evolution vehicles have moved to more efficient alternators to supply the electrical demands of the myriad accessories we all demand. As the quantity of electricity flowing through under hood systems has increased, the life of hoses has decreased. It works like this, batteries and electrical systems have to be grounded in order to have a completed, read that, workable circuit.

Then and now vehicle ground circuits have been completed through the engine block, which means electricity travels through the engine on its way back to its source. Situated neatly within the metal of the engine, in its water jacket, is coolant. Because coolant is conductive, electricity passes through it too. Coolant with electricity flowing through it causes the inside of your radiator and heater hoses to break down into a hardened stratified mess.

Unfortunately, the slow insidious internal breakdown of hoses can’t be effectively detected without destructive testing. At best, it’s guesswork to tell if a hose is good, so routine preventive replacement is the smart way to go. There are many signs to let you know that hoses are bad but a hose that looks new on the outside may be ready for instant failure from internal, non-visible degradation.

To guard against surprise hose and belt failures and the deadly engine overheating that follows, you’d be dollar-wise to replace your belts and hoses every four years or sixty thousand miles.

It may seem like a waste of money to remove good-looking parts and replace them with more good-looking parts but failing to could leave you in the same situation as Marty. He’s the guy I helped-out on the beltway. You see not only did Marty’s upper radiator hose rupture but the overheating was so rapid and so severe he wound up buying a new engine. In Marty’s case two hundred and fifty dollars worth of hoses and belts would have left him with four thousand more dollars in his bank account.

© Copyright 04/29/97 Pat Goss all rights reserved 599 words

Date Updated Tuesday, April 29, 1997

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