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How in the world do you get room to service the "heater to engine" heater hose?? I can see the heater end and ALMOST get a pliers on it, but there is not way in HELL I can get anything to the engine side of the hose. I can barely get my scrawny hand back in there.
04 Aveo, 1.6L DOHC, auto
Well, its not too often you have problems with heater hoses. You might have to start removing items around the area like the starter, etc.
are you going in from on top or from behind?
its a tough spot to get to, you could try making access beside it by taking off the coil pack and such... or go from underneath and remove what you need to.
I tried top and bottom. Unfortunately, I think this is my fault as it seems like its routed incorrectly around the EGR tube, which put a stressful bend in the hose and the edge of the nipple on the back of the motor wore through basically.
I really don't want to have to pull the intake or the starter but its looking more like that is what is going to have to happen. DAMN! I really wanted to get to painting the bedroom tomorrow instead of working on the cars.
Can you imagine have 6 cars at your place and NONE run right? THIS SUCKS!!
now i can tell your a vw owner.Quote:
Originally Posted by YnotVW
LOL, literally! Anna just gave me a funny look, so I had to explain.
Hopefully tomorrow I can get this hose changed and the water replaced with coolant. Then move onto making some make-shift fuel tank straps for my 81 Scirocco and plugging the RR brake line since it has a small leak. Then I'll have 2 drivable vehicles since the trucks brakes are feeling worse everytime I step on them.
I just ran into this same problem today. I came to the forum for answers but I couldn't find a great one. Nobody really had any "tips." I figured I'd share how I removed and replaced this hose.
My 2004 five speed started leaking from a pinhole in the heater hose (the one stemming from the center of the block). I pressure tested the system to locate the leak, and then began biting my nails, worrying that I'd have to remove the intake manifold and a whole bunch of other things just to replace a stinking hose. But with a little redneck ingenuity I was able to pull it off with only removing one part. Here goes:
Get underneath the car, put it up high on jack stands.
Remove the starter assembly (two long bolts on the starter itself (10mm), and three nuts to the wires (2x12mm, 1x13mm). The starter should basically fall out.
Once you have the starter removed, you should be able to see straight up to where the hose connects to the outlet on the block. In my case, the prongs for the squeeze clamp were facing the wrong direction (upward toward the hood). This was problematic because the intake manifold braces are tunnel-like and C-shaped, and the hose goes right into one of these "tunnels." There is no room to get pliers or a tool on that clamp. This is when I got creative.. I took a length of wire, and doubled it over, and looped it up over BOTH prongs of the squeeze clamp. The wire was long enough to where I could wrap my hands in it (wear gloves) and heave-ho until the clamp rotated enough to where I could fish a pair of water pump pliers up there and back the clamp off of the outlet. The clamp on the firewall is easy to get to and remove.
When putting the new hose back on, I lubed it up and put a screw clamp on it, facing DOWN. I put a socket on the screw and used every extension I had, which made it easy to tighten the clamp using a ratchet from below the car. Note that the new hose was a length of standard heater hose from autozone and it was STRAIGHT, without the unnecessary bends that the stock ones have for some reason. I put a squeeze clamp on the firewall end of the new hose, pressure tested the system, and reinstalled the starter.
Filled it up with coolant, ran the engine and cycled the heater until it reached operating temperature. No runs, no drips, no errors.
Hope this helps you guys in the future!!!
I know this is an older thread but wanted to add to it for future searchers as our cars age and the vulnerable center heater hoses begin to fail. My heater hose (from heater core to engine block) ruptured at the block. Spent most of the day repairing it. Having suffered and wasted so much time, thought I'd make it easier for others as info on removing the starter is non-existent on the web.
Some pointers/additions to the info above and on other sites.
1. No need to take off the intake to do this, although it would make access very easy. Not worth the extra work.
2. There is no access to the upper starter bolt. At least not on my 05. However, removing trapezoid-shaped metal intake bracket on the rear of the engine makes it possible and somewhat easy. There are 2 12mm bolts on the top of the bracket to the manifold and 2 larger bolts from the bracket to the block. There are also two wiring/harness plastic bracket, the upper one slides off/the lower can be pried off with a flat blade screwdriver.
Once this bracket is maneuvered down and out of the way, the starter can be removed. The upper bolt is now accessible with a 14mm deep socket and a short extension. Do not remove the long bolts that hold the starter to the solenoid assembly. If you do, some planetary gears will fall out and you still won't have access to the upper starter bolt. Just remove the two bolts that hold the starter to the block/bell housing like any old starter remove/replace procedure. Of course, remove the 3 sets of wires (ground/pos/solenoid).
The bolts on the bracket are hard to see from underneath so a good work light helps a great deal.
The rest of the job can be done with 90 degree or 45 degree long reach pliers (for the factory clamps).
Lucky Me...When removing some of the hoses the nipple on the Coolant Pipe came off with the hose! I had to research by description as this part is not referenced anywhere that I researched "Who puts a plastic pipe on a hot engine anyways?" I've done far more complicated repairs in years, But this repair really pisses me off, Damn Korean Go Kart.