During my inspection of the car tonight, I was grabbing the radiator hoses, and felt something really weird inside the hose. Its in the highlighted area of the attached pic. Is there supposed to be something in the hose here? for a second I though it was plugged up with somethign at this point, but it seemed to uniform, then just stopped close to the engine. Is there somethign in the hose here?

*scratch head.....

 

I think my 59 GMC truck had wire....like a spring inside to keep the bend uniform and hose from collapsing... cant imagine anything like that in there today... unless a modification prior to you buying it and or you found the missing screw driver that the previous owner lost when he was installing the hose... :-\

It could be that the hose has just hardened, old hoses sometimes do that, which means you should replace it rather soon, or it may give out at a socially crippling time.

ditto on that - radiator hoses are cheap, and they are easy to replace I routinely check mine, and if I feel that they have the slightest inclination toward failure, I replace them - as that one is near your thermostat, I may go ahead and do it as well

 

one note about springs - they are BAD, I have known of several instances where the spring "traveled" out of the hose, and in one instance it killed a radiator, in the other it killed a water pump (one car was a BMW, I can't remember the other one)

Could be a spring... which isn't really needed. At least none of the EA81 hoses I've used or removed have had them. Doesn't seem to make any difference. I've seen springs on some EA71 hoses out of gen 1's.... might be a part number mix up. Shouldn't hurt anything tho.

 

In any case, if the hose is getting brittle, or the spring is starting to rust (common) I would replace it. While you are at it, replace the upper hose too since you have to drain the fluid anyway. And replace the heater core hoses with single solid 5/8" heater core hose. The old ones are likely pretty nasty and they will fail - especially with those couplers in them that are probably nearly rusted out by now. I just use a single hose for each line instead... the hose is only $1 per foot (NAPA), and 6 feet is more than enough to do it. Replace the thermostat too if you haven't, and use ONLY one from the dealer for that part. One of the few choice parts that I get exclusively from Subaru. Same goes for the thermostat gasket (intake manifold too actually). Aftermarket ones are terrible.

The heater core hose - should I also replace the one inside the car coming out of the heater core. That might be a b!tch to get to.

The heater core hose - should I also replace the one inside the car coming out of the heater core. That might be a b!tch to get to.

 

The only ones that are "inside" or behind the firewall, are very small bits that connect the heater control valve, and the core itself. I've never seen a leak there, and as they are inside the vehicle, they generally don't rot.... plus the vavle is brass, so not a lot of corrosion sits there usually. The core, or the valve body will fail long before those peices, so don't worry about them.... they actually aren't that bad to get to. Replacing the core is, but the valve isn't nearly as bad.

 

Replacing the ones from the firewall to the engine is what I was refering to. Remeber to get some hose clamps as the stock wire ones are difficult to work with. Same goes for the one under the manifold.... there is a brass peice that routes them under the manifold, and.... well just take a look and you'll see what I mean.

 

You could also replace the small 90 degree hose comming off the water pump - those usually get pretty nasty too. Have to get a hose with an elbow formed into it for that one tho.