The hoses for my birdsnest are hard and need replacement. What do you recommend? Has anyone tried the silicon hoses? What size? Does the blue class with the air intake? (My fem side said that.) Herb

 

Hi Herb. First of all, it's a rat's nest, not a bird's nest.

And yes, those cutesy blue silicone hoses are very girly, they don't have anything like the appeal of the manly black stock hoses that came with the car.

If you look closely at the original hoses, you'll see they're all all custom manufactured, some even have different tapers on each end.

So skip those girly blue hoses and do it right, get original stock Mazda replacements.

And that's the good news, because there are plenty of original rat's nests out there with good hoses thanks to the tendency folks have of ditching the rat's.

I have several in the shed, if you can't find a donor locally send me a pm.

 

Ray,
I was thinking Silicon because it bends tighter without crimping and doesn't degrade like rubber. I appreciate the offer but aren't your hoses going to be just as hard as mine? (You can get black silicon too ya know. )

Herb

 

since the hoses are all under vacuum, and mostly don't move they are better off just being left alone.

if you must replace, most of it is just bulk hose, Mazda sells it in 1 meter lengths, 9935-10-4999 for the 4mm hose and 9935-10-5999 for the 6mm hose. its high quality, and its got the correct markings on it.

you can use silicon, but it needs to be the correct size, if you have to stretch it to get it on the pipe, it will fail later. i prefer black, just because thats the original color. usually i find different colors distracting, do you want people looking at the engine or the vacuum hoses? i will point out that Divin Drivers vacuum hoses are blue, and it fits right in.

 

Be very careful taking the old ones off. Sometime they bond with the plastic part of a solenoid and the plastic will brake off.

 

I'm just joking about the blue silicon of course Herb, blue is fine, hot pink might even be better.

I'm just saying that it's usually easier, faster and cheaper to just replace any bad pieces with used units from the multitude of rat's nests that populate the parts sheds of the world. Send me pictures of the ones you need to replace, I'll get some good ones in the mail for you.

And listen to KC, those plastic nipples snap off if you look at them wrong, half the time I've replaced a hose I've ended up doing a solenoid or connector along with it.

 

I did replace mine matching the new lengths to the existing ones. Took photos prior and during replacement.

For the hoses on the green thing, I slit the hose on multiple sides with an X-Acto knife. That released some of the tension allowing the hose to come off easier.

All the hose were fairly hard and some did not have much grip. Fearing vacuum leaks, I replaced them all.

 

Here's mine.

 

Who paints their FLYWHEEL?! WHO DOES THAT?!?

(Nice work - I went with blue silicone vacuum lines, breather tubes, and everything else - because I wanted them to match my Racing Beat blue silicone radiator hoses.)

 

Hot pink on purple, the ultimate passion statement:

 

The "Pink" one was my fist attempt. I wasn't a fan so I redid it in gun metal, smoke chrome, and silver explosion powder. I did paint the flywheel but not the mating surface. I ended up actually powder coating it black on the rebuild.

I'm not a fan of the red silicon either. I'm going to switch to blue or black at some time.

 

I bought my silicone vac lines from Mazdatrix somewhere around 15 years ago; still supple and tight on the fittings.

two downsides only;

1) dust and dirt sticks to them; they need to be wiped down occasionally. Same is true of silicone plug wires.
2) the lines that carry fuel vapor will sometimes slowly accumulate an oily substance on the OUTside of the lines. The lines themselves stay intact and vacuum tight, but some component of engine fuel slowly migrates through the silicone. It's weird. Only shows up on a couple lines down in the spacer-to-ratsnest group.

 

Don't hate on the blue silicone! They match the air box!

 

That's exactly what I'm looking for. 1)Where did you get the hose? 2) How much is needed? 3) What brand are the plug wires?

Herb