OK doing rad replacement and cut off bottom of rad to get silly bottom hose off, now i have cleaned it but it just will NOT go back on the new one.
Is there an easier way of fitting? Like bottom hose on to the outside of rad pipe then clip with jubilee clip? Would it fit like this or does it have to fit back inside the bottom of rad?
Thanks
Xantia Rad Bottom Hose
Moderator: RichardW
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PicassoPigeon
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Your tale sound like my rad change! I had to cut the bottom of the rad off and then cut the remaining housing in half to split it off the hose connector!
If you look at the rad connections you'll see that a hose just won't go over it properly to securely seal. Spend a lot of time cleaning the hose connector, scrape all the crud off or it'll never go in - they are an exceptionally close fit.
I thought I had mine seated properly but after a journey into work (about an hour) I found I was starting to loose water. By the time I was in the car park I was loosing a lot of water. One wiggle of the bottom hose and it all came out.
I spent some time trying to reseat the hose and in the end called the AA. The 'very nice man' spent 3 hours cleaning the hose connector and scraping his hands trying to refit it before he succeeded. I'd have called recovery long before that.
He took the retaining spring off and made sure he had a good fit. I think he put the retaining spring on after the hose was connected and then pressed the hose in to make sure it was seated properly. To his credit it's still there and I'll do everything to just leave it alone!
It's a pig of a job and must only be made so difficult by the limited access - the top hose is so incredibly easy...
Good luck!
If you look at the rad connections you'll see that a hose just won't go over it properly to securely seal. Spend a lot of time cleaning the hose connector, scrape all the crud off or it'll never go in - they are an exceptionally close fit.
I thought I had mine seated properly but after a journey into work (about an hour) I found I was starting to loose water. By the time I was in the car park I was loosing a lot of water. One wiggle of the bottom hose and it all came out.
I spent some time trying to reseat the hose and in the end called the AA. The 'very nice man' spent 3 hours cleaning the hose connector and scraping his hands trying to refit it before he succeeded. I'd have called recovery long before that.
He took the retaining spring off and made sure he had a good fit. I think he put the retaining spring on after the hose was connected and then pressed the hose in to make sure it was seated properly. To his credit it's still there and I'll do everything to just leave it alone!
It's a pig of a job and must only be made so difficult by the limited access - the top hose is so incredibly easy...
Good luck!
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PicassoPigeon
- Posts: 197
- Joined: 25 Jan 2003, 23:43
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Well so far so good, top hose was easy with a bit of grease but bottom hose was very badly rusted.
Took along time to do it but its on and i have tried to pull it back off and it did not move so i hope it will stay on there now. Wish i could have got a new metal connector for it some how, it would have been a lot easier.
Also the bad news i broke one of the radiator retaining clips so for now its got a cable tie holding it in place. Any ideas what i can do with this? Is it OK for MOT?
Took along time to do it but its on and i have tried to pull it back off and it did not move so i hope it will stay on there now. Wish i could have got a new metal connector for it some how, it would have been a lot easier.
Also the bad news i broke one of the radiator retaining clips so for now its got a cable tie holding it in place. Any ideas what i can do with this? Is it OK for MOT?
The rad retaining clips are feeble, my rad is held on at both sides with zip ties. It's not an MoT issue.
When changing the rad on my Xsara, I made the mistake of slicing through the bottom hose when I couldn't get it to part with the rad. Then I realised the hose is a monster one-piece design which connects to the expansion tank, back of the block etc etc, and I couldn't repair it. It cost about £37 to replace, but worst of all it took Citroen 2 days to supply it, so I had the added expense of hiring a car while mine was off the road.
The internal-fitting bottom hoses are something to watch out for when removing a radiator...
When changing the rad on my Xsara, I made the mistake of slicing through the bottom hose when I couldn't get it to part with the rad. Then I realised the hose is a monster one-piece design which connects to the expansion tank, back of the block etc etc, and I couldn't repair it. It cost about £37 to replace, but worst of all it took Citroen 2 days to supply it, so I had the added expense of hiring a car while mine was off the road.
The internal-fitting bottom hoses are something to watch out for when removing a radiator...
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pete@co.uk
- Posts: 396
- Joined: 22 Jan 2005, 18:47
- Location: west midlands
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hi
well i tried to get my rad out yesterday on my 97 1.9 td xantia becouse one of my radiator fans is playing up and i had a hell of a job getting the bottom hose off. managed it to find there,s another pipe there as well just above the bottom hose with a spring clip thats what stopped me in my tracks, could,nt get on to it or just tired by the time i got to it. did,nt go any futher i needed the car back on the road for work today anyway the bottom hose on mine was quite clean inside and the connector looked like its made of hard plastic all i did was to do away with the that silly spring clip put a jubilee clip in its place left it loose and pushed and wiggled the bottom hose back on making sure it went on properly when it was fully pushed home just tightend the clip back up and all was fine. so nextime i try to do the fan it wont be such a struggle i got that spring clip off useing a very small pair of molegrips locked it on pulled the clip back then wiggled and pulled at the pipe till it came off ill replace the smaller pipe with a jubilee clip when i next have a go so i think the best idea here is get rid of all those springclips and replace them. but i agree that bottom hose is stupid surely citroen could have come up with a better design than that but the jubilee clip makes life a lot easy,er
pete..................
well i tried to get my rad out yesterday on my 97 1.9 td xantia becouse one of my radiator fans is playing up and i had a hell of a job getting the bottom hose off. managed it to find there,s another pipe there as well just above the bottom hose with a spring clip thats what stopped me in my tracks, could,nt get on to it or just tired by the time i got to it. did,nt go any futher i needed the car back on the road for work today anyway the bottom hose on mine was quite clean inside and the connector looked like its made of hard plastic all i did was to do away with the that silly spring clip put a jubilee clip in its place left it loose and pushed and wiggled the bottom hose back on making sure it went on properly when it was fully pushed home just tightend the clip back up and all was fine. so nextime i try to do the fan it wont be such a struggle i got that spring clip off useing a very small pair of molegrips locked it on pulled the clip back then wiggled and pulled at the pipe till it came off ill replace the smaller pipe with a jubilee clip when i next have a go so i think the best idea here is get rid of all those springclips and replace them. but i agree that bottom hose is stupid surely citroen could have come up with a better design than that but the jubilee clip makes life a lot easy,er
pete..................
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PicassoPigeon
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pete@co.uk
- Posts: 396
- Joined: 22 Jan 2005, 18:47
- Location: west midlands
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hi gav
the jubilee clip is on the bottom hose and this is how i did it, i pulled the end of the hose down as far as i could through the gap where you can see the hose and get your hand on it after removing the bottom cover so,s i could see the clip got a very small pair of mole grips clamped then onto the clip and opened it then removed the clip from the hose put on the jubliee clip lose then wiggled and pushed the hose back on making sure it went on properly bit fiddly then pushed it home and tightend up the jubilee clip and thats it the next problem ive got is to do the same on the small centre hose but yesterday id had enough so i put it all back together but ill have a go another time, and those spring clips are a pain they were the only thing that stopped me from what i was doing yesterday.
pete.......................
pete.................
the jubilee clip is on the bottom hose and this is how i did it, i pulled the end of the hose down as far as i could through the gap where you can see the hose and get your hand on it after removing the bottom cover so,s i could see the clip got a very small pair of mole grips clamped then onto the clip and opened it then removed the clip from the hose put on the jubliee clip lose then wiggled and pushed the hose back on making sure it went on properly bit fiddly then pushed it home and tightend up the jubilee clip and thats it the next problem ive got is to do the same on the small centre hose but yesterday id had enough so i put it all back together but ill have a go another time, and those spring clips are a pain they were the only thing that stopped me from what i was doing yesterday.
pete.......................
pete.................