Question about hose life...

Just curious as to how long a set of hoses can be expected to last on a
car? My question pertains to my '96 Taurus that I just took to the shop
to have a coolant leak checked. The mechanic says its a small crack in
the expansion tank, and he looked at and squeesed the hoses and said
that as long as they are pliable, they are OK and that when they start
to crunch is when there is a problem. Now, here comes the reason for my
question. To the best of my knowledge, these hoses in question are the
original hoses on the car (11 years old and 135 000+ miles) as I recall
no hose replacements have been done since I bought the car (I bought the
car new in late 1995) save for maybe some recall work done in the first
year that I owned the car.

--
necromancer

Deadly Psychopath. And Proud of it, Man!!

On Feb 8, 4:19 pm, necromancer
> wrote:
> Just curious as to how long a set of hoses can be expected to last on a
> car? My question pertains to my '96 Taurus that I just took to the shop
> to have a coolant leak checked. The mechanic says its a small crack in
> the expansion tank, and he looked at and squeesed the hoses and said
> that as long as they are pliable, they are OK and that when they start
> to crunch is when there is a problem. Now, here comes the reason for my
> question. To the best of my knowledge, these hoses in question are the
> original hoses on the car (11 years old and 135 000+ miles) as I recall
> no hose replacements have been done since I bought the car (I bought the
> car new in late 1995) save for maybe some recall work done in the first
> year that I owned the car.
>
> --
> necromancer
>
> Deadly Psychopath. And Proud of it, Man!!

Hose manufacturers may disagree with me, but I've found that good
quality hoses can last 15 years or more.

I just replaced what I believe are the original hoses on my '88 944
probably three years ago. They were starting to get bulgy, but they
were still working fine - the impetus for replacing them was that I
had to have the timing belt serviced anyway.

nate

In article .com>, N8N wrote:
> On Feb 8, 4:19 pm, necromancer
> wrote:
>> Just curious as to how long a set of hoses can be expected to last on a
>> car? My question pertains to my '96 Taurus that I just took to the shop
>> to have a coolant leak checked. The mechanic says its a small crack in
>> the expansion tank, and he looked at and squeesed the hoses and said
>> that as long as they are pliable, they are OK and that when they start
>> to crunch is when there is a problem. Now, here comes the reason for my
>> question. To the best of my knowledge, these hoses in question are the
>> original hoses on the car (11 years old and 135 000+ miles) as I recall
>> no hose replacements have been done since I bought the car (I bought the
>> car new in late 1995) save for maybe some recall work done in the first
>> year that I owned the car.

> Hose manufacturers may disagree with me, but I've found that good
> quality hoses can last 15 years or more.

> I just replaced what I believe are the original hoses on my '88 944
> probably three years ago. They were starting to get bulgy, but they
> were still working fine - the impetus for replacing them was that I
> had to have the timing belt serviced anyway.

I generally replace hoses when they start to look bulgy or just feel
squishy to me. When there is decay on the ends beyond the hose clamp as
well.

I just replaced the hoses on the mustang last year. I've probably
replaced hoses I didn't absolutely need to once or twice, but I didn't
feel like finding out the hard way.

necromancer wrote:
> Just curious as to how long a set of hoses can be expected to last on a
> car? My question pertains to my '96 Taurus that I just took to the shop
> to have a coolant leak checked. The mechanic says its a small crack in
> the expansion tank, and he looked at and squeesed the hoses and said
> that as long as they are pliable, they are OK and that when they start
> to crunch is when there is a problem.

On my car (18 years old), I had two split hoses over a 2 year period.
In neither case were the hoses crunchy -- they were just extremely
soft, and the splits were very thin cracks parallel to the hose
direction
that had been leaking for some time (months?) , but one day finally
decided to open right up (presumably when steam pressure reached
some particular level).

I replaced them all except for one that cannot be removed without
removing the throttle body, which is not a simple job! Just carrying
duct tape with me in case that one goes

On Feb 8, 4:19 pm, necromancer
> wrote:
> Just curious as to how long a set of hoses can be expected to last on a
> car? My question pertains to my '96 Taurus that I just took to the shop
> to have a coolant leak checked. The mechanic says its a small crack in
> the expansion tank, and he looked at and squeesed the hoses and said
> that as long as they are pliable, they are OK and that when they start
> to crunch is when there is a problem. Now, here comes the reason for my
> question. To the best of my knowledge, these hoses in question are the
> original hoses on the car (11 years old and 135 000+ miles) as I recall
> no hose replacements have been done since I bought the car (I bought the
> car new in late 1995) save for maybe some recall work done in the first
> year that I owned the car.
>
> --
> necromancer
>
> Deadly Psychopath. And Proud of it, Man!!

I have a farm tractor that was built in 1980. The heater hoses (for
the cab) are original. The main water pump hoes were replaced about 15
years ago when the water pump was replaced.

Hoses last a lot longer than they did in the 50's. I never replaced a
single hose on my 1992 F150 (sold it last year).

It really comes down to risk adverse you are. Persoanlly I wouldn't
worry about an 11 years old car. On the other hand, if you are
planning to keep the car for another 10 years, you might as well
replace them now.

Ed

Ladies and Gentlemen (and I use those words loosely), Ed White said in
rec.autos.driving:
> On Feb 8, 4:19 pm, necromancer
> > wrote:
> > Just curious as to how long a set of hoses can be expected to last on a
> > car? My question pertains to my '96 Taurus that I just took to the shop
> > to have a coolant leak checked. The mechanic says its a small crack in
> > the expansion tank, and he looked at and squeesed the hoses and said
> > that as long as they are pliable, they are OK and that when they start
> > to crunch is when there is a problem. Now, here comes the reason for my
> > question. To the best of my knowledge, these hoses in question are the
> > original hoses on the car (11 years old and 135 000+ miles) as I recall
> > no hose replacements have been done since I bought the car (I bought the
> > car new in late 1995) save for maybe some recall work done in the first
> > year that I owned the car.
> >
> > --
> > necromancer
> >
> > Deadly Psychopath. And Proud of it, Man!!
>
> I have a farm tractor that was built in 1980. The heater hoses (for
> the cab) are original. The main water pump hoes were replaced about 15
> years ago when the water pump was replaced.
>
> Hoses last a lot longer than they did in the 50's. I never replaced a
> single hose on my 1992 F150 (sold it last year).
>
> It really comes down to risk adverse you are. Persoanlly I wouldn't
> worry about an 11 years old car. On the other hand, if you are
> planning to keep the car for another 10 years, you might as well
> replace them now.

Got the car back this afternoon, the mechanic after looking closer at
the lower hose suggested that that one should be replaced - said it was
looking a little bulgy, so might as well replace it while he was tearing
the car apart anyway (the waterpump he had replaced last Nov was also
leaking, so he was replacing that anyway - under warranty - so may as
well get hte hose too). Said the other hoses still look good, so I'm
sticking with those for now.

Don't know how long I'll be keeping the car. If all goes well, maybe
another 5 years or so (my last car went to 13 years and 250K on the
odometer, so this one - hopefully - has a way to go yet; even though I
use it mostly for driving around town and use a different car for road
trips).

Thanx all for the replies....

--
necromancer

Deadly Psychopath. And Proud of it, Man!!