Hi All,

The upper radiator hose tee fitting partially disintegrated while driving in the mountains. This caused the right radiator hose to pop off and eject all the coolant. I have a temporary fix with a PVC tee in place while awaiting new upper radiator hose kit.

My question is: what causes this kind of damage on this plastic tee? Just age? This is an '03 Disco II. Pic attached. You can see where the "barb" has just gone away so a hose will no longer hold. I'm also thrilled to know that all of those tiny plastic pieces are now in my cooling system.



Thanks,

- Jason

 

Hot & Cold cycles eventually make the plastic brittle

 

I'm surprised to see the plastic bleed nipple was still holding pressure and not leaking coolant. Wouldn't be surprised if the threads are showing signs of wear they are prone to snapping off.

If there were areas to shave manufacturing costs Land Rover engineers were all over it. I think Land Rover found more value in having their engineers 'discover' ways to pinch pennies then have a team of worthy designers capable of building a durable product.

 

Age AND....get ready for it.......its.....coming............DEXCOOL!

Yep, happened to mine. Dexcool was mostly the culprit.

 

As a multiple BMW owner, and also having a '99 Disco, I would be curious to find out how much of this plastic-stupidity came from BMW.

My wife's '96 328i Convertible has more plastic in the cooling system than the Disco. The thermostat housing is plastic and fails every 50k miles, the radiator end tanks, expansion bottle, even the water pump impeller is plastic. Outside the cooling system, the intake manifold is plastic, as well as the valve cover and all of it gets brittle and fails prematurely.

Don't get me wrong, plastic can be strong and durable, but even the best plastic can't hold up to dexcool because it eventually turns to acid. Combine the acidic quality of dexcool with the Bosch insanity of 210 degree operating temperature and there isn't a plastic made that will withstand this absurd combination.

I believe the only reason the cooling system on my Disco is still working, is because it was changed to glycol (regular green coolant) a long time ago, and the thermostat was changed to the lower temp unit.

One of my favorite quotes from Scottie on Star Trek is, "The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain."

 

just old

 

This. Just renew all of the hoses every 4 or 5 years or so. The D2 has too sensitive or fragile of a cooling system to wait until something starts leaking before repairing it.

If I were to buy another D2, especially for a daily driver, I'd probably put a new radiator, fan clutch, reservoir, water pump, and all of the hoses in it immediately.

It would be a lot of money, but it would be worth every penny for peace of mind.

 

Dexcool is not the culprit (unless you haven't changed it since day 1). It is an old piece of plastic that comes in contact with 200*F water. It's destined to fail. I fixed mine by using a copper T-connector from the hardware store. I also used heavy duty hose clamps with some RTV to seal it up.
Yes I did lose the bleeder screw. In fact it is what broke in the first place. But I never had an issue with air in the system. I just ran the engine for 5 minutes and the air went into the tank.

 

Just like me! Now I'm wondering how my own "tee connectors" are holding it!

Thanks, everybody, for the replies. The upper hose kit arrives today, but now I'm thinking about just replacing that tee with copper straight away.

Best,

- Jason

 

Mine broke as well exactly like yours. I need the truck badly so I ran to home depot and got the copper tee from plumbing. Still there and had no time to replace it, but on the other hand, I replaced the other T in my other disco with copper too. I think they wont rut like the plastic ones.