Water Hose to 'Oil Cooler'

Author
Discussion

gdaybruce

Original Poster:

758 posts

232 months

Saturday 14th January 2012
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On the 1.8 Mk1 there's a hose that goes from the rear of the engine on the driver's side to what Mazda describes as the "oil cooler" where the filter screws on. Mine has split near the end of the hose at the back of the engine and while getting it off at that point looks OK, the other end, on the oil filter housing, looks impossible. I can scarcely reach a finger in beneath the inlet manifold to feel it, let alone see it or actually wield a pair of pliers to remove it!

Has anyone any experience of this job? I'm thinking that at the very least, I'll need to remove the manifold support bracket but just possibly the inlet manifold will have to come off as well. And from what I remember with my old 1.6, it's almost easier at that point to remove the cylinder head with the manifold attached than to remove the manifold while it's still in the car.

Any tips greatfully received!

MX-5 Lazza

7,954 posts

226 months

Saturday 14th January 2012
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I don't think it's too hard to get to it from under the car/in the wheel arch with the front wheel & under-tray off. Not easy but easier than taking the head off!

NeoVR

436 posts

178 months

Saturday 14th January 2012
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It is possibly the biggest ball-ache of a job to do on a '5.

I recently did mine, and it took an entire day with access through the wheelarch being so tight.
its probably easier and quicker to take the intake mani off!

cwinterb

82 posts

188 months

Sunday 15th January 2012
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I did this on mine recently, when I replaced all the coolant hoses. I started trying to take the inlet manifold off, but gave up! However, I found that once the throttle body was off, which is only four easily accessible bolts, I could get just enough access to replace the tricky hose. You'll need a new throttle body gasket if you go down this route but they are only about a fiver.

I did find that the replacement silicone hose rubbed slightly on a bolt along its path end ended up sleeving the bolt with a bit of the old pipe to stop the hose rubbing on the metal.

Best of luck!



Edited by cwinterb on Sunday 15th January 00:47

johnfrommk

13 posts

169 months

Sunday 15th January 2012
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I bought the replacement pipe then cut of the old pipe as far forward as possible. Then cut the new pipe to match Ijoined the two pieces together with an internal sized piece of metal piping. This saved the trouble of accessing the front joint but replaced the bad part of the old pipe.

NeoVR

436 posts

178 months

Monday 16th January 2012
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johnfrommk said:
I bought the replacement pipe then cut of the old pipe as far forward as possible. Then cut the new pipe to match Ijoined the two pieces together with an internal sized piece of metal piping. This saved the trouble of accessing the front joint but replaced the bad part of the old pipe.
Now that is a good idea! being that it almost always goes at the back of the engine!

gdaybruce

Original Poster:

758 posts

232 months

Monday 16th January 2012
quotequote all
Thanks for all the suggestions - very helpful (although clearly as bad a job as I'd feared!).

I had hoped to get on with this over the weekend but didn't get the chance so it will probably be another couple of weeks now before I have the time during daylight (roll on the long summer evenings!). One thing no one suggested was removing the inlet manifold support bracket and perhaps the oil filter as well. Looking at it, I should have thought that that might free up as much space as anything else, short of removing the manifold altogether. The bracket itself looks straightforrward to remove, unless anyone can tell me otherwise?

And failing all else, John's idea of using a sleeve pipe and forgetting all about the lower end is very reassuring!

BonzoG

1,554 posts

221 months

Monday 16th January 2012
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This is one utter ballache of a job. Took me and a mate with freaky contortionist hands the best part of 8 hours to change.

Coil pack off to reach the rear of the hose, front accessed via the wheel arch.

In the end we had to settle for cutting the hose in half, mangling the hose clips enough that they didn't clamp down as hard as they used to, and then grabbing the hose and just pulling the whole lot off with brute force.

Hose clips are the work of the devil, especially when there's no room for the proper pliers.




Mr MXT

7,711 posts

290 months

Wednesday 18th March 2020
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Anyone know the diameter of this pipe? I'm planning on chopping mine where the pinhole leak is and putting a barb fitting in.

grudas

1,339 posts

175 months

Thursday 19th March 2020
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took the intake mani off to do mine.. was a total ballache! took a day to do :|