Hey guys,
About 8 months ago my truck started to loose coolant slowly .... about a cup every two weeks. I had assumed it was the head gaskets as I couldnt find a leak anywhere and I took it to my friend who is a mechanic who confirmed this diagnosis. I dont have the time or the money to put new head gaskets in so I did the next best thing (I know you guys are going to give me cr*p) I put some stop leak in there. Anyway, all was well until I was driving yesterday. While I was out, I noticed that my temperature guage started to raise up. I immediately pulled over before she overheated and saw smoke clouds coming out from the engine. I had assumed that the head gasket finally gave but this was just an educated guess. Anyway, after waiting for an hour for a tow truck to arrive, the truck cooled down and I started doing some investigating. As luck would have it, the throttle body heater hose (the one that connects into the top of the intake, behind the alternator) had ripped open. I have never actually seen a hose give under the pressure of the truck but I have to say that this thing was almost cut in two. I mean it didnt just spring a leak it blew open. So, this is where my story takes me. Is it normal for the hoses when they break to split wide open like that, or is it possible that the Barrs leak clogged something that caused too much pressure in the engine and then caused the hose break in such a manner. I would like to just replace the hose and be on with it but I dont want to be stuck a few days after I have it fixed. Any help will be appreciated.

Sorry for the long post

 

go get a replacement at the local dealer or grab 4 feet of hose at your local auto parts store and change the hose. The hard plastic hose is connected at each end by a soft rubber piece. Take off the rubber piece and match it up at the auto parts store. You don't need to use the dealer hard plastic hose. You might pick up a couple of new hose clamps as well. Easy fix. Then bleed the system as set forth in the various threads on this forum. After that, monitor your coolant level and see what happens. While you are changing the hose, look to see if the gasket on the bottom of the throttle body plate is leaking. It is another common leak area. Phil

 

How about 11 year old and 155,000 miles, Have you ever replaced all your hoses, they are most likely past do along with a t/stat and coolant recovery cap.

 

Hey guys thanks for the replies. I have replaced the hoses over time when I saw that they were starting to bulge. Not all of them have been replaced though ..... this one being one of them. Also regarding that pesky throttle body heater plate, I bypassed that years ago using a piece of copper piping. In general its probably time to replace all the hoses with a new t-stat, but I am stuck in a bit of a quandary. You see I was too far from my house to have the truck towed home (well that is unless I wanted to pay $400). Now it is at a random shop and I really dont want to pay them to replace something that I can easily do on myself. I guess I have to guage that on my own, but what I would like to ask is if there is anything different about land rover hoses that I should know about. The only car ive ever done work on has been my Land Rover and so I dont know if there is a difference in how they get put it over other cars (seems pretty straight forward but who knows .... some people dont have quite as big of a brain). Anyway, I really dont trust these guys from a hole in the wall however, if "a hose is a hose", I might just suck it up and let them replace them all ............. with me having bought the hose kit from AB direct of course . Any thoughts

 

Each engine's hose shapes are pretty much unique, you don't get standard hoses.
Back to the original problem....
The little black plastic hose split open, they do get brittle and crack open. Replace it with some heater hose from napa, cheap and easy. Fill up with coolant and drive home, then inspect all your other hoses and replace as necessary.

 

Thanks for the reply. I just want to clarify though. The hose that snapped wasnt the plastic one that runs back to the expansion tank. I already replaced those two since I did trust the brittle plastic. The one that broke was the rubber hose that gets connected to both the top of the engine and the throttle body heater. Its roughly 3/4 inch thick by about 15'' long. The thing almost ripped in two right where is connects to the engine. It looked like someone cut it in half with a razor. Thats why I asked do these things explode like that

 

OK... gotcha. Get some heater hose of the same size and replace it.
Hoses get hard with age and can rupture, who knows what happened with yours. Is it really important?

 

No, its kinda just for my own knowledge. I was thinking that the stop leak that I put in might have caused a clog which caused too much pressure at this hose. This might not even be possible. I was just trying to find out.

 

I highly doubt that it clogged anything up. there's only so much pressure in the system, not enough to blow the hoses apart. It's probably just an old brittle hose that's needed to be replaced for a while. Anyway, now you know it's bad!!!