Silicon Hose Kits - opinions

[Robertjp]

Heard good and bad – whats your experience with them gents?

I have a rusty clip on a water pipe (think its a water pipe – 4.0 sp6) into the nearside bottom of the block and thats quite a good excuse to upgrade the hoses

I have heard a number of people end up chasing leaks for 12 months after fitting them which i really don’t have the time to be doing with the little one taking up my time and no flip open bonnet (Tuscan)

Easy to fit? Im aware that bleeding the system may be a PITA afterwards. Again, not wanting to spend more than a few hours on it, will maybe get it done whilst being serviced if the opinion is good and that they are worth the investment.

Think i understand the advantages, more heat resistant and longer life than rubber. Look nice

[jimed]

Silicon hoses are the way to go as far as I'm concerned but there is a slight downside and that is that they need to be tightened up a couple of times after they have been fitted. Reason being that they seem to go a bit slack on first use so you would need to go over them all and check until they don't slacken; once that is done it is more forget them than the ordinary rubber hoses which will go with time.
Jim

[FlipFlopGriff]

Had no problems with them on either Griff. Also went to stainless pipes which finish off the job.
FFG

[brogenville]

I had a silicone hose come off at the connecton to my water pump whilst driving at 70 mph. Cue instant evacuation of coolant and resulting head gasket failure. I'm giving them a miss from now on

[Robertjp]

brogenville said:

I had a silicone hose come off at the connecton to my water pump whilst driving at 70 mph. Cue instant evacuation of coolant and resulting head gasket failure. I'm giving them a miss from now on

Hmm, this kind of thing puts me off, i know with rubber this is much less likely to happen as it bonds to the metal, and once tight, its tight!!

Ok, even more undecided than i was!!

Thanks for the opinions so far gents, not that i have come to any decision

[NCE 61]

Had them on my Tuscan S for quiet some years and had no issues, just re-tighten the clips after a bit of use. Had more problems on my previous Tuscan with the original hoses leaking.

[Gazzab]

Chased leaks for months on my AJP after having them fitted.

[Basil Brush]

In nine years and getting on for 50k miles I've had to replace one original hose due to a leak.

[Tanguero]

Just to add to your indecision, I put them on my AJP 4 years ago and never had a moments problem.

[brogenville]

Basil Brush said:

In nine years and getting on for 50k miles I've had to replace one original hose due to a leak.

This is the key. Whilst silicone hoses look nice, and are more durable in a race situation, for road cars they are an answer to a problem that doenst exist. Put simply, there's nothing wrong with rubber hoses, and IMO, more to be lost than gained by fitting silicone.

[itiejim]

I've got silicon hoses on my AJP Cerb and had to tighten them up about a month after I fitted them.

I'm very happy with them, though I wouldn't bother if you don't actually need hoses.

[natben]

I fitted them to my Cerb(SP6) last winter along with a stainless pipe and no problems at all and they do look FAR better. I bought them from ACT but get the stainless steel bend as well between radiator and engine.

[Tanguero]

brogenville said:

This is the key. Whilst silicone hoses look nice, and are more durable in a race situation, for road cars they are an answer to a problem that doenst exist. Put simply, there's nothing wrong with rubber hoses, and IMO, more to be lost than gained by fitting silicone.

When I got my Cerb the original rubber hoses were perished and leaking. As soon as I replaced one another started leaking. Replacing every hose with silicone ones answered a problem with the very poor original hoses. I anticipate that they will last at least as long as the rest of the car now - a very definite gain.

[Robertjp]

Well thanks gents,
i have decided...to leave things as they are.

Hoses are in good condition, havent had a single cooling issue since i bought the car 2 1/2 years ago, and i guess the expression goes 'if it aint broke....'

I think its been put well earlier in the thread - there is potentially more to lose than gain in removing perfectly serviceable rubber hoses and replacing with silicone, and they fix a problem that doesnt exist.

I understand those who have done it where the rubber hoses have needed replacing, i will probably do the same, but as i dont need to, and dont have the time or inclination to potentially be chasing leaks or worse...im going to stick with what is there.

Now....just got to find out what size that bloody clip is and get a new stainless one!!!!!!!!

[Goaty Bill]

I just replaced the main cooling hoses in my Chimaera, for the first time, with original rubber hoses.
All heater hoses and overflow hose are still original. Thirteen years, 96k miles.
In fact none of the originals had actually leaked yet, but as the radiator and swirl pot were being replaced, it seemed a good time to do it.

Once a decade seems a reasonable life expectancy to me.

[neal1980]

You cant go wrong with silicone hoses but just replace the clips at the same time with some decent ones.

I have every pipe on mine done in them and they have given me no trouble so far.

[ACT]

brogenville said:

I had a silicone hose come off at the connecton to my water pump whilst driving at 70 mph. Cue instant evacuation of coolant and resulting head gasket failure. I'm giving them a miss from now on

The pump inlet (as all the metal connections) has a bead so that the hose can't ever slide off, but it is important that the clip is the other side of the bead, if it isn't the hose is sure to come off at some point, silicone or not.
Or maybe the clip failed ?

[SimonKD]

neal1980 said:

You cant go wrong with silicone hoses but just replace the clips at the same time with some decent ones.

I have every pipe on mine done in them and they have given me no trouble so far.

Same story here, 100% recommended.

Regards
Simon

[scotty_d]

Fitted full coolant sets to a subaru and 2 of my TVR's now with no problems and around 30k miles between the cars i think they are great they key is good quality jub clips i use stainless high torque ones and they have never lost a drop since day one.

[MPoxon]

Full ACT kit on mine for 2 years no problems matched with the ACT S/S pipes. It is worth noting that the ACT kits come with high quality S/S jubilee clips