Hose changes

[Phil]

I've had coolant problems and today, after changing three hoses and the plastic T piece behind the rad I think I've cured it. I didn't have the vac fill machine so I had to use another method, at work we have a funnel that fits onto the expansion tank making a tight seal, I filled the funnel right up and it slowly chugged in, I kept the funnel topped up and eventually it stopped filling due to trapped air, I kept squeezing the top hose and the water dropped a smidgin as it was filling the pipes and displacing the air, when I had got as much air out as I was going to I started the engine up and kept on squeezing the pipes, I was doing this for about twenty minutes, with the heater on full blast, no warm air coming through though, I then held the revs at about 2000 rpm for about 10 seconds whilst repeatedly squezing the top hose and then had an almighty rush of air then hey presto, heaters work. Using this method to fill the cooling system the car didn't even start to overheat. I have a photo with the funnel in place but don't know how to put it up. I was hoping to subscribe tonight, swmbo said I could use her paypal account to save me sending a cheque but she's past out next to me.

The new hoses I got were genuine MGR ones but I couldn't believe how poor the quality was, it inspired absolutely no confidence. You could see where the hose had been stitched together and looked really messy.

One thing I did notice, the hose that comes up from the PRT that runs up the centre of the rad to the T piece had been rubbing on the aircon hose and the hose had actually worn down to the thread! I wasn't even replacing it for this defect!! I don't know if it's the same for the V6's and the diesels but certainly 1.8 and 1.8turbo owners should check this out, before I fitted the new hose I put foam padding around the hose and wrapped tape over the padding to secure it so hopefully the new hose won't suffer the same fate as the old one.