On Monday evening I was a very lucky boy indeed. Whilst on a journey back from seeing a friend my coolant hose of death gave up the ghost! It was quite foggy out & when I stopped at a set of lights near the end of my journey I thought I saw some smoke. I do have an intermittently smoking turbo but it looked different. After my last engine failure I'm kind of obsessed by the oil pressure gauge & upon checking it (again), it was down to 2 bar. I have one of barbs' engines & have never seen it below 2.5! Before I had a chance to do anything the lights changed & I pulled into a car park with my eyes firmly glued to the gauge. As I sat there on idle, I saw it drop again to 2 bar & then slowly but consistently start decreasing. I naturally shat myself & at 1.8 I reached for the key to shut it off .... and that's when I noticed the engine temp was starting to point north!!

Me & a mate (who kept telling me how heavy the bonnet was he was holding up ) got under the bonnet and realised the smoke I saw was actually steam. We poured water into the header tank and we just heard it pour out as fast as it went in from around back of the block. After digging around with the torch on his phone I could see it was peeing out of the coolant hose near the join on the opposite end to the thermostat!!

I had the car recovered on Tues morning to Barbs & had the shame of arriving with my car on the back of a flat bed whilst another customer was dropping their ink black coupe with a private plate (J---WOO?). Was it anyone from here?

Barbs has fitted an upgraded hose of death for me & after driving it home this evening, it seems I caught it just in time!! He said there was a massive gash in the pipe so it must have failed quite spectacularly. If I hadn't gone to see my friend on Monday evening, my next journey would have been straight down the M4 to London & a certain death for my engine!!! I must buy a lottery ticket this week!

If your reading this barbs, you the man!

Glad its ok.

That would of been user name VTurbo your saw

Well done.
Even today this is killing engines despite the warnings.
Not many keep an eye on the gauges,give old Barbz a pat on his pot belly

Rob that's great news, and at the same time horrifying to think it was that close to extermination...

Was it the original chod do you you reckon, i.e. did it still have the original Fiat clip round it?

Excellent Rob, glad you saved it

Cheers people . I have always been quite mindful of what is going on with my engine & I had no indication that it was on it's way out. No puddles, no coolant leak, just fine one min and then gone the next!

'Edinburgh' - Yes I think it was the original pipe. In hindsight I should have had it upgraded when the new engine went in but it must have looked in pretty good condition for barbs to use it on new engine. In fact it has lasted 7 months/3500 miles or so, so it must have failed pretty abruptly/from the inside out? Mine is a 99 plate for the record.

There must be a way of rigging up a low level coolant warning light into the cabin somehow. I was very lucky due to my circumstances but If I did have a warning light, and I was going down the motorway, I would have had a chance to stop the car before any damage was done. Has anyone fitted something like this to their car?

Cheers!

Since my CHOD went two years ago and toasted the turbo I have silicone hoses fitted on mine as priority #1.

Just out of interest has anyone experienced a silicone hose giving up the ghost?

Once again I'm pleased I changed the CHOD on my Plus for a silicone version earlier this year as a precaution. The original one looked ok when I inspected it after removal but better safe than sorry!

does anyone have a link to a silicon hose that wont let go... Im scared and the car is for the Mrs she wont realise before Its too late.

Im flushing the cooling system soon so it wont be any extra bother to get this done whilst im in there fettling

seems to be a lot of chods going at the moment!!! i have just bought a new thermostat and sensor and silicone hose for piece of mind!! think a regular change of hose will be the order of the day. for 45 pounds from JBT rather than lots of £££££ for a new engine ticks my box

John at Midlands Car Servicing will be able to help; choice of colours too, although a waste of time for the CHOD as you can't see it without a pair of mirrors!! Johnnybravoturbo on the forum - in the traders section. 20 minutes from you,

good luck,
Tim

Note: the 20v n/a CHOD is not the same as the 20vt CHOD, it also has to be changed from underneath.