Coolant hoses on a 21 year old Cup

[ex-Chinese Dave]

What's the lifespan of the coolant hoses in a 172? Mine look fine but is there a point at which you should change them rather than waiting for the dreaded split and leak?

 

[gez 172]

It depends on what you use the car for IMO. If it’s not your daily and just a weekend, local B road blaster. Then it doesn’t matter if you break down.

Other side of that is, if you plan on doing a euro/ring trip - then no doubt a hose will cost you a recovery.

 

[16v_paddy]

If for any reason you need to do any kind of work to the cooling system then it's well worth the time & spending £120 on a set of silicone hoses as a while you're in there thing but as the guy above said, if it's purely a toy kind of car, if it aint broke don't fix it

Although I must point out (before somebody on here does) I am a bit of a hypocrite as my Cup is purely a toy car but I did put new silicone hoses on it 🫣

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

It’s my daily. I’ll just keep on eye on everything and change them at the first sign of trouble…. which will probably be at 10pm on a wet Wednesday on the M60!

 

[alistairolsen]

Hoses used to fail on older cars at age, primarily due to construction and materials I suspect.

I've had a few from the 90s fail and weep coolant from the ends where the reinforcement is exposed, so a leak from the bore to the reinforcing layer and subsequently replaced them.

Between myself, friends and family I've never seen a coolant hose pop and cause a recovery on anything from mid 90s on. I have however seen header tanks, caps, radiators, water pumps, aux belt tensioners all go. I wouldn't be unduly concerned personally, you're more likely to get a puncture with no spare wheel than blow a hose.

 

[gez 172]

Just keep a roll of hose repair tape in the car so you can get home

Black Silweld Silicone Self Fusing Radiator Hose Pipe Repair Tape

1 x 3mtr Length OF EVERBUILD SILWELD TAPE Incredible Silicone Self Fusing Tape Silweld is the incredible new Amalgamating silicon tape Blue Red Black Yellow Green White & Clear

www.advancedfluidsolutions.co.uk

 

[Brigsy]

Check for cracks and gouges on hoses, replace if any seen. If all look ok keep sending it.

Keep an eye on the oem spring type hose clamps as they almost rotted through on mine, replaced them before they failed.

My dci is 197 thousand miles/22 years old. Original hoses not too worried, done 375 miles in it this week already. If it breaks tomorrow ive had 90 thousand miles of reliable journeys, so it is what it is.