Removing Heater Hose On 8.1l Suburban.

mwitte · January 13, 2011

So I am replacing the lower radiator hose on a 2003 burb with a 8.1L. I figured out the stupid clip on the radiator side, but on the firewall side where the heater hose goes onto the metal heater looks like one of the quick disconnect tools are required so i am going to try that. The issue I have is that the Gates hose I got does not have a quick disconnect fitting on the heater side of the hose. How am I supposed to get this to work or is this hose a dealer only item and the gates wont work properly? the only way I see this working is cutting the hose and putting in a splice, whats the point of changing the hose then if you need to splice in the quick disconnect you still have a old piece of hose.

mwitte · January 13, 2011

So looks like there is a plastic collar that is molded to the hose, I used a soldering iron to cut it in half and once I did that i was able to cut the hose off. I was a little afraid of breaking the plastic quick disconnect it went in to the soldering iron worked perfect.I just used a reguar hose clamp on it for the new hose. Still a little freaked out about the way the lower hose is only held on by that clip and the o ring in there but its been like that for 115k. Did the oil pressure sensor, belts, tensioner(had one of those go once and you lose steering etc pretty exciting) and hoses.

I got all my parts over the internet from Rock auto,I looked up the part numbers at NAPA, autozone etc and ordered from Rock. Probably saved over 100 bucks maybe more.

Back in buisness...

txab · January 14, 2011

You can re-use the disconnect part after cutting the hose from it and then using hose clamps with the new hose. You can buy new disconnects, Gates has them. Or you can clamp the hoses directly to heater core pipes

tim73 · March 22, 2011

What about the other hose...the one that connects to the engine? There is a, actually both hoses have them, plastic "tee" with 3 of the quick disconnects(One goes to the engine...and it is leaking, one goes to the rear heater core...and one goes to the front heater core). I cant find any of these "tees" or even a listing anywhere. Am I not using the right terminology?