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General Site Info => General Discussion => Topic started by: Brady on October 19, 2010, 09:20:27 pm
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I replaced the radiator about a week ago and replaced the hoses at the same time. I had been driving it all that week and I thought everything was ok and had just parked in my garage when I heard my coolant spraying out on the floor. I know I had tightened that clamp when I installed it; it was a screw type clamp that is commonly sold in auto parts stores. I had this happen a few years ago when I replaced the hoses, but that time I caught it when it was just a drip and retightened the clamps. When I took those hoses off this time, I could see that the clamps had squeezed the hoses way down and I wondered if there was any danger of causing a failure by overtightening.
Do you guys go back and retighten the hose clamps after a few days? Is there a danger of overtightening them?
TIA,
Brady
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Yes you can over torque the worm type clamps
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in my nearly 3 decades of using those clamps, I never go back to retighten them, and have never had any problem. And as mentioned, you can overtighten them and cut the rubber.
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I double check them if I installed a new hose. The hose is prone to compress a bit after a few heat cycles, and can leave a bit of slack in the clamp. Maybe its just me, but I would rather be cautious than have sticky antifreeze all over my motor.
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I bet you got a cheap hose clamp. I've never had a problem with these, but I've had a rash of clamps that stripped out before they were tight enough or came loose just in the past couple of years. I think the ones I had a problem with were from Autozone, so I've bought my last few from NAPA.
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Thanks for the responses. This is the second time I have had this happen, but before it was just a leak; this time it was a torrent. I think I will be rechecking them after this. The one that is hard to get to, I doubled up on the clamps. It could be that with rough clamps I wasn't getting them as tight as I thought.
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Do you have the right hose? If you're squeezing the hose down to make it fit you may need a different hose. Different radiators have different diameter outlets.
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I've never re-torqued any of them, though I have ruined a few. i tighten them up until i think they are tight enough and if they break they were inferior to begin with. ;D
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Do you have the right hose? If you're squeezing the hose down to make it fit you may need a different hose. Different radiators have different diameter outlets.
Yes, it was the right hose. It took a little bit of twisting and effort to get it on.