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XT heater coolant lines fixed... ALL FIXED


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OK, so the coolant return line from the heater core to the water pipe (?) on my XT blew this morning, good 1" crack, lost all coolant. Doesn't look like I overheated the car, though, so I may be lucky.

 

there are two hoses that come forward from the firewall that contain coolant, one is the cracked one, the other I assume is another coolant line.

 

Anyone have any advice or know of any pitfalls in replacing these?

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go to a real parts store or the dealer if you want the right molded hose.

 

when removing the old ones DONT PULL on the fittings sticking out of the fire wall. that is your heater core and it is easily damaged.

 

make a cut in the old hose(your gona chang it anyway) and peel it off the fitting.

 

I have had good luch using regular 5/8 heater hose or silicone hose. I just zip tie it so the clutch linkage does not hit it. but thats on my wagon and RX. the XT may be different.

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on the XT6 one heater hose goes to a metal line that runs under the intake and to the water pump. i removed the metal line and hose at the water pump and ran one piece hose from the pump to the heater core, reducing the number of hose clamps by two for whatever that is worth. general hose worked fine for me in the past on XT6's. take the old hose into the parts store and they'll match it up. be sure to check it, easy for them to assume the wrong ID.

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OK, I replaced the line $%*@#$%@#%.... anyway.

 

 

New problem: the car won't start.

 

All I've done is replaced one of the heater coolant lines (the one that was actually split, I'll worry about the other one next weekend).

 

I checked the ignition coil wire, it's secure both on the coil and on the dizzy cap.

 

The car turns over, but doesn't sound like it's trying (or able) to fire. Occasionally, if I've been turning it over for several seconds, I'll get a "lug" out of the engine (like one single fire) after I release the key.

 

Ideas? Starting problems are something I have almost no familiarity with... so treat me like I'm the idiot I am on this one...

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The reason the engine tries to fire when you turn it off is because the coil electrical field collapses when power is cut off. This means that the coil is not seeing the firing signal pulse which is a ground on the negative side of the coil. My guess is that you may have caused a connection problem to the distributor while working on the hoses. Look over the wiring to the disty for a problem.

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The reason the engine tries to fire when you turn it off is because the coil electrical field collapses when power is cut off. This means that the coil is not seeing the firing signal pulse which is a ground on the negative side of the coil. My guess is that you may have caused a connection problem to the distributor while working on the hoses. Look over the wiring to the disty for a problem.

 

All 5 of the wires going into the top of the distributor are properly seated, as is the disty wire to the ig coil.

 

Is there a specific wire I need to look at?

 

OR.... when your heater hose split, you may have gotten moisture in the distributor.

 

This seems more likely, as the output line split on the outboard (driver's) side of the line, spraying everything between the hose and the fender, about 4 inches to the front and rear of the split in the line.

 

How is this fixed? parts? opening it up and pointing a hair dryer at it?

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Yeah, just take off the disty cap and see if it's wet or dry in there.

 

Dry.

 

Poked around at the connections on the underside of the coil and there was this round connector with four pins inside it that was SLIGHTLY disconnected. After reconnecting, it fired right up.

 

I need to look at it again later... not leaking coolant any more, but it gets to about 75% of the way to hot before it stops... whereas before it would get 60-65% there and then stop.

 

Edit: (rereads specs on the XT) Yeah. Probably don't have enough coolant in it... I put in about 2 quarts, mixed... says 6.1 quarts capacity. And I'm fairly certain I had basically no coolant left...

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I'm not sure what you meant in response to my last post. Fuse #5 is important for the ignition system so you should check it. Since the horn is on this circuit also it would mean the fuse is ok if it works.

 

Well....

 

Poked around at the connections on the underside of the coil and there was this round connector with four pins inside it that was SLIGHTLY disconnected. After reconnecting, it fired right up.

 

I had posted this before you posted your response.

 

So nothing, I guess. :)

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