Hey guys, at the risk of sounding like an idiot I have a question. I noticed the other day that when the car is running, the upper radiator house slightly swells up. If you look at the clamp you will see it start to flare out slightly. It flares out evenly all the way to the radiator end tank on the other side and not one specific area more flared than the other. No other adverse issues with the car (holds temp fine, no leaks, no indications of a failed HG overly pressurizing the system, no milky oil, etc). I should note the car has an FM Crossflow on it so the upper hose is not OEM and before it gets mentioned, the reroute is next. I'm guessing this is normal as the system is under pressure when running? Never noticed this before. Pic attached

 

Swollen hoses are a sign that you're about to blow a hose. Replace it.

 

Agreed. Replace immediately.

 

Thanks guys. Yeah, I'm just going to replace it to be safe. Seems so odd since the hose is 7 months old but better safe than sorry.

 

as already said, replace.


Rad hoses have a braided sleeve set into the rubber, specifically to prevent them from bulging out (as well as some other stuff)

If it's bulged like that so soon after fitting it i'd suggest that it may have had a manufacturing defect.




Also, with the replacement, try and stick with rubber, rather than silicone.
A good rubber hose should be good for 10+ years (well, here they last that long, not sure on climates where you see snow and stuff)

 

Is it actually swolen, or did they just use too big of a hose and clamped it down? (Or non coolant rated hose, which would cause problems too).

 

I used the hose FM recommends be used with the FM crossflow when using the OEM coolant neck (AKA no reroute). I believe it's a Dayco 71273 hose. I do vaguely remember reading online however that the hose was ever so slightly a larger diameter hose than the OEM hose.

I should note, when the car is off and cool, it looks perfectly normal. It's when the system is pressurized that it puffs up a bit, so i sort of chalked it up to it being somewhat normal since the coolant system is under pressure. I bought another hose I'm going to try later today