well ive been praying to the rotary gods today, thanking them for sparing my car. i seem to have sprung a pin-hole sized leak in the hose that runs to the top of the thermostat housing i believe. luckily the hole was punctured squirting AWAY from the turbos (otherwise id be looking at an insurance claim for fire damage probably). i have a feeling this was the result of recently adding a 1.3bar radiator cap to the car (in order to try to solve my never ending cooling problems). so my questions for you all are:
1) should i replace the hose(s) with mazda ones... or does someone make aftermarket replacements that would be more suited for a higher pressure cap?
2) since one hose sprang a leak i assume its a sign that the other ones under the hood are due for replacement yes? how many hoses are required to COMPLETELY re-do the cooling system of a stock FD? again, are there aftermarket replacements for these hoses?
3) should i remove the 1.3bar cap? will this just cause more problems than it solves? if i keep it should i switch to a metal AST? (i just replaced the plastic one last year as a precaution since i got a brand new one for cheap)


P.S. in other news, if anyone has a top half of a stock air box (in good shape) that they would be willing to part with, let me know... a body shop recently broke off one of the hose fittings.

thanks guys, heath

 

bump

 

Contact Ray Crowe at Malloy Mazda (888-533-3400). He offers a COMPLETE hose kit for the FD for ~$170. IMO, you can't beat that. The OE hoses are quite good.

The 1.3-bar cap was replaced with the 0.9-bar cap to reduce the stress on hoses and other things and reduce the occurrence of catastrophic coolant loss. If you do go back to the 0.9-bar cap, I would additionally suggest to install the FC thermoswitch to lower coolant temperatures.

 

yeah i have a FC thermo switch waiting to go in. 170 isnt horrible and i havent had a good talk with ray in awhile... i should give him a call tomorow.

should i get new clamps? are the stock ones decent?

 

When I replaced my hoses, I re-used the stock clamps. The only reason you shouldn't is if they're badly corroded or damaged. the spring-type clamps, IMO, work better than screw types, because the spring types maintain clamping pressure as the rubber hoses take a set.

 

DaveW sums it up well - I only want to add a couple points:

- There are no noteworthy aftermarket replacements. Just use regular Mazda rubber hoses - nothing really unsatisfactory with them, given the environment they must endure. All rubber loses strength with time and temperature. I see nothing wrong with running the 1.3bar cap, as long as you don't expect to wait another 10 years to replace the hoses. Maybe change them all again in 5 years. Keeping coolant temps down a little can't hurt.

- Re-use the clamps, but make sure to clean the crusty stuff off the hard pipes so that the hoses are clamped to a nice even, smooth surface. I found a small bushy polishing wheel for my dremel that worked quite efficiently to work off the gunk and leave a clean hard pipe.

Dave

 

thanks guys! im on the phone with ray right now -heath

 

If you do keep the 1.3-bar cap, I'd definitely get an aluminum AST - the original is a known failure point.

 

yeah, im still looking for one (other than the pettit). the pettit one is good... but id like to get one that accepts the japanese caps so i can easily switch pressures if need be. as far as i can tell, the pettit one is all thats available at the moment. does anyone know of any others that i could get???

oh yeah, and ray quoted me ~$158.00 for the entire hose kit shipped (something like 14 pieces)

 

Thats a great price on the hoses. I paid more than that buying from Mazda Trix and didn't replace all of them. I'm running Evans NPG+ with zero pressure so I'm not too woried about the one's I didn't replace. Tri-point racing has a nice metal AST that accepts the stock caps and is in the same price range $125 to $150 is what I paid for mine. Jack

 

ok i found one FINALLLLY after searching ALL of the websites that sell FD parts. corksport is the ONLY one i can find that sells a non-pettit AST for $230. if the price were cheaper id call and order one now.... but the pettit one sells for $150. im not sure i can justift the cost difference to use JDM caps and having it polished aluminum. anyway, that being said, ill most likely end up with this one despite the price. (that is unless anyone can talk me out of it ) -heath

 

i cant seem to find the part listing. do they still offer it? you wouldnt happen to have the link would you? thanks, heath

 

I personally would suggest using silicone hose to replace all of the small coolant hoses. It's not that expensive and does hold up better than rubber. Use the OEM radiator hoses.

 

Here's there site. you'll have to contact them as I didn't see it in there parts catalog any more. Jack
http://www.tripointengineering.com/