The original hoses do last a real long time. Once they are replaced with the
aftermarket stuff you are possibly looking at 5 years for most. The
aftermarket hoses use cheaper materials and sometimes even fit poorly. Be
real careful of those Meyle hoses for the oil cooler.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
David Beierl
Sent: Thursday, March 7, 2013 9:29 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Fw: melting lower thermostat housing

At 02:04 PM 3/7/2013, raceingcajun wrote:
>Hoses, crack and deteriorate from the inside out. And should be
>replaced every 2 to 3 years!

Given what a set of hoses for this beast costs, that's never going to happen
for...I'm willing to bet more than one or two people on this list, if that.
But fortunately those ridiculously expensive hoses are of insanely high
quality as well.

The gotcha there is that because of that, you may have a bunch of original
hoses in there; so you should be examining the possibility of replacing as
many of them as possible.  Any hose showing swelling is in the process of
failing as its internal cords rupture.  I've experienced mostly two types of
failure with Vanagon hoses:
deterioration/splitting/rotting at the ends, or a 3/8" long rip in the
middle of an otherwise normal-looking hose.  In fact I had four coolant
failures in the first three months after I put my present '89 White Star on
the road, three rips and one split/rot.  On one occasion a temporary bandage
to such a rip (silicone self-fusing
tape) left on too long resulted in the hose adjacent to the repair swelling
dramatically, but I caught it before it actually burst.  I've not felt any
cooling hose except the little cloth-covered ones to the bleed manifold show
any signs of hardening.  Rather, even new Vanagon hoses feel flabby compared
to what I'd been accustomed to.  My experience is primarily with vehicles
that have mostly been in temperate/rust belt climates.

Yours,
David