So recently my car began to overheat and I had no idea why. After checking my coolant level I noticed that it was incredibly low, so i added some. After my problem persisted even after adding gallons, yes GALLONS of coolant time after time I just said screw it and parked her.

I took a look at my hoses and the 2 that connect the engine to the radiator are ok, but my heater hose is FUBARed. I started the car after topping off with coolant to see if there were any other noticeable leaks under the car, and low and behold it was just pouring out under my heater hose area and also the passenger side under the timing belt area, just great.

White smoke at idle and (with radiator cap off) coolant bubbling up where you pour coolant in (not overflow), woo hoo! So, my question to you all is, what can I do to be the gentlest on my wallet and what exactly should I do? TIA!

A pair of heater hoses are around $13 at the dealership.

As for the leaking on the timing belt side, check your thermostat housing. The seal may be leaking or it might be cracked and running down. I've had that happen. Worst case, your water pump is leaking.

You're lucky. The hardest part about this repair is getting your hands back in there to make the swap. Here you go, in order of most to least expensive...

- Go to the dealer and get the prefab hoses for replacement. $15
- Go to your local discount auto parts store and pick up about 3ft of rubber hose in the same diameter as the blown ones. $10
- Take the better of the two hoses already on the car and bypass the heater core. $0

Remove your intake piping for better access to the hoses. Maybe pull the battery too. It's going to suck trying to hold hose clamps in place while tightening them down between the engine and firewall. Look for the two pipes running along the driver's side of the head with the hoses on the end of them by the firewall. Those are your heater core lines.

Connect one to the other and you're done, but you'll have no heater this winter. Your call.

My personal choice, and what I've actually done, is the $10 generic hose from Autozone method. Get 3ft of hose and cut it in half. Connect the ends on the firewall first (they're the trickiest), then sort of loop them around neatly (no kinks) and connect them to the pipes next to the head. You're done.

The benefit of going with generic hose like this is that it's cheaper, but if you have slack, the next time this happens to you, odds will be good that you have enough hose in there that you can cut the blown section off and just reconnect right there on the side of the road. Top off the coolant and go, man.

Good luck.

Thanks DR1665,

As for the leak near the water pump, it does only leak at idle so does that make any difference as to it for sure being a water pump leak or is it posible it could still be something else, like the thermostat as previously mentioned?

I'd fix the heater hoses and make sure everything dries out before you worry about anything else. It could just be that the hoses sprayed the backside of the timing belt cover and that's causing the drip by the pump.

Replace the heater hoses, fill and properly burp the coolant, then keep an eye on your temps. Remember, if the gauge reads hot, but there's not hot air when you turn on the heater, you're really, really low on coolant.

I have had two major problems with those stupid hoses. The first happened last year while I was on the way to work on a freeway and all of a sudden my temp gauge reads max temp. There is a little traffic but a cement wall on both sides where I was at so I had to wait to exit and pull off the side of the road. Had it towed home and saw the giant slit in my hose. I replaced it and I am good to go.

In march this year I was overheating again and this time I live 5 mins from work since I moved and was 50 mins from work before. So I make it home before the car even fully warms up to normal temps and notice I have no coolant. Anyway, I see that my one hose touched the intake manifold and burned a little hole in it. ha. This time it was cold outside and I didnt have a lot of time but I had a friend help me and we managed to get that hose replaced using autozone hoses. Well in the process of getting that one fixed we managed to cut the other one some how so we had to go back and get another hose. haha. We fixed that one and I put these little cable sleeves we use at my work for high voltage just in case they decide to adjust themselves again. We did this without taking off the intake manifold and was A VERY TIGHT FIT.


Point of this story....I hate those damn heater hoses :)

oh and I agree in using autozone hoses. Cheaper and can get as much length as you want.

Wow, anyone have any suggestions on how to get the clamp off on the firewall end of it? Its insane to try to get off.

Originally posted by mysteryclipse21
Wow, anyone have any suggestions on how to get the clamp off on the firewall end of it? Its insane to try to get off.

Isn't that one of those wire-style clamps with the screw through it? If so, just keep unscrewing until the screw part falls out. You can pick it up from under the car or use a magnetic grabber (or replace it with a different clamp) later.

If you're talking about the hose being stuck on after the clamp is removed, feel free to take a blade to the hose. It's going in the trash anyway...

Originally posted by DR1665

Originally posted by mysteryclipse21 Wow, anyone have any suggestions on how to get the clamp off on the firewall end of it? Its insane to try to get off.

Isn't that one of those wire-style clamps with the screw through it? If so, just keep unscrewing until the screw part falls out. You can pick it up from under the car or use a magnetic grabber (or replace it with a different clamp) later. If you're talking about the hose being stuck on after the clamp is removed, feel free to take a blade to the hose. It's going in the trash anyway...

The wire style one was on the block end of the hose, the clamp I have on the firewall end is I believe a white plastic one, and its a complete mother to get off. I will just slice I think.

Alright well heres the deal, i went to autozone and got a new section of hose to replace my old. I installed the new piece (biggest bitch ever), then re-filled with coolant. As I am refilling, I hear coolant start dripping onto my floor (great). I notice it is dripping from the area where the hose meets the firewall.

The copper-ish colored pipe that comes from the dash/out of the firewall that I put the new hose over is allowing coolant to leak out. I have the hose pressed in there as snug as possible and it still leaks out of this area! Is it possible that there is a crack in the copper pipe or something? I did also notice that the pipe is slighly pinched and is not a perfect circle.

How should I go about fixing this? I am so close yet so far.

Also, while I am filling coolant, how is it flowing in? By that I mean where does it flow through? Does it flow from the block side to the firewall side, or vice-verca?

The hard line that runs along side of the head from the thermostat housing and lower raidatior hose has two outlets. You can run one to the other until you replace the heater core if you need to get it running.


The connecter on the firewall being out of round could be your issue.