hey everyone, i was driving when my engine started smoking so i pulled over and found out the coolant hose had broke. the hose was leaking coolant all over the engine and burning off causing smoke. i jimmied together a fix for the mean time but then i found that coolant was leaking from another random hose. im guessing this hose is the overflow but im not sure what it is supposed to be attached to. the hose in question is the one being held in the first photo. any info would be great
welcome! did you put those clamps on, or were they already there? how many miles on your car? are you the original owner?
yes i put those clamps on until I can get it to a mechanic. the car has about 130k miles and i am not the original owner.
I can only see a short portion of it on my car and can't see either end. But if I had to guess, I'd say it must go between the radiator and the inverter coolant pump. The end you're holding is hidden by the hood latch on mine.
Took a look at ours: that black plastic junction is a Y shape, with two spigots on the right side. The disconnected hose looks to be the lower hose on right side. I've heard the screw-style clamps are tough on the spigots btw, create a "point load". The kosher clamps provide even pressure. Also, there's no clamp on the left side, as it comes from the factory. Ours has been fine thus.
They are called "Corbin" clamps, although the original "Corbins" were made of wire. Dorman makes them. I've seen small ones available at Pep Boys. Larger ones for radiator hoses are available on Amazon. This type of clamp is preferred and used by most OEM applications, because it applies even pressure on hoses over plastic fittings. Common worm drive clamps impart a "stress riser" at the point under the screw area which could eventually destroy the fitting underneath. The worm drive screw clamp should not be used to replace OEM Corbin type constant pressure spring clamps. The spring clamps should be replaced with the same type for long plastic fitting life. Should the hose in the clamping area compress with age, spring pressure will maintain pressure and the seal. When I installed my OCC, I used Corbin type clamps. that I got form Pep Boys.
@Georgina Rudkus thanks for the info. I ordered this: OD of the 3/8" fuel lines I'm using is 5/8" (aka 16mm). Only thing: it is a royal pain to pry the hose off hose barb fittings; might be simpler to just buy some more hose. My lines were both slightly short anyway.
update: so i got a new Y shaped junction that mendel pointed out and hooked it up to my car. when i was driving today the SAME thing happened, suddenly a ton of smoke, so i pulled over to check out the car. the y shaped junction had melted at the same place it had before (on the lower hose). I'm not sure what would be causing this. my temperature gauge only came on at the start of my drive and did not come back on, even when it was smoking. also it looks like the hose exploded because there is white goop all under the hood. does anyone have any ideas what could be causing this??
thank you both for replying. i took E-lane (my prius) to the mechanic and he thinks there may be problem with the head gasket which is causing the hose to blow off since that is the weakest point in the system. hoping it doesnt end up being a $1.5k fix :-/
sorry to hear it. this is a big problem with gen 3, and 2010's especially, since they have the most miles. i hope the mech is wrong!
