360 coolant hose burst

The coolant hose leading from my 2001 360's water pump burst the other day. I couldn't tell which one till I removed the interior access panel today. it is the short hose running from the thermostat valve cover. Although it is a 9yr old car, I am a bit surprised that the hose burst. I'm not aware that it was ever changed on any of the past services (including one engine-out service a couple years ago), but I wasn't expecting that it would be anyway.

I see from the parts book that they've changed something about this hose and the aluminum riser it connects to 3 times through the series, but my assembly number is beyond the last one shown. My basic question is: should I consider this a one-off situation and just replace with the Ferrari hose, or should I substitute with some alternative-source hose? Also, is this failure indicative of some other problem, or is it probably just old rubber? The hose split lengthwise for about 1" in the center of its span. It is dry till the engine reaches temperature, then starts gushing, so the thermostat appears to be working fine.

It is part #20 in the figure below.


Lou
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The car has approx 32,000 miles (from memory).

I also removed the silicone elbow in that same area (number 19 in the parts diagram). Same material and manufacturer as the couple that split (Tubi Gomma Torino MVQ). It seems nearly pristine, but I'll replace it anyway since it was right there.

Thanks for the replies.


Lou

 

Thanks very much for the insights.


Lou

 

I'm getting ready to install my replacement hoses and refill the system. On my last coolant change, the shop put in BMW blue coolant because it was supposedly the same spec as the Ferrari spec'ed coolant and didn't have the Ferrari upcharge. Is there really something significantly better about these coolants over the readily available green Prestone, etc? Thanks.



Lou

 

I completed this project last week but took a bit longer to test drive a few times before posting results. I could find no reason for the failure. The hose seems to be in great shape except for the break. No abrasion, no signs of fatigue.

To check for the possibility of a cooling circuit blockage, I used rubber plumbing adapters to temporarily connect my garden hose to the car, and another for the outlet. I fed water from the hose backwards through the system to flush out anything that might be in there. All the output was captured into a bucket, and I saw no debris of any kind. This covered the entire area from the engine forward through the radiators, but not the engine. I didn't want to mess with the engine side, and I knew that the thermostat was working since the original broken hose only leaked once the engine reached a temperature to start opening the thermostat. I then cleared the water out of the system by pushing compressed air through the garden hoses.

Rather than go back with OEM hoses, I decided to order custom silicone-nomex hoses from Viper Performance in UK. This covered the two silicone hoses at that area of the engine. While there are other such hoses elsewhere in the run up through the radiators, I decided to hold off on them till they fail. It took a few weeks for the custom run just for my two hoses but they are thicker than the originals, have more reinforcement layers, and use nomex reinforcement for increased temperature rating. Since I don't know the temperature spec for the OEM hoses, I can't say if they are indeed higher rated. As others have said, there hasn't been a real history of failure of the OEM hoses. BTW, they were cheaper than OEM in spite of having to be custom made to the specs I had measured.

I refilled with the BMW blue coolant. It took a while to bleed the system, but all went pretty well.

Pics of the burst hose, replacement custom hoses, etc will follow.


Lou

 

Pics are below.


Lou
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Thanks Robin, but since I had the access panel off anyway to replace the hoses, I had access to everything I needed.



Lou

 

Hi Kevin,

I have been to Savannah, but I don't recall ever being as far north west as Rincon. I had to look up the town 'cause I've never heard that name before.


Lou