After chasing the smell of coolant for a couple weeks, discovered that the upper radiator hose was leaking at the engine. Based on my schedule and drive schedule, and unfamiliar location this last week, I took my truck to the last people I wanted to - the Ford dealer, where they attempted to charge me $467 for the hose replacement. In the end I paid $308, which included 1 hour of shop time at $140 plus $155 for the hose. During this time I discovered the nature of how these hoses work and asked the tech why they don't just replace the O-rings ... "Ford Motor Company wants to sell you a new hose with labor" - a direct quote from the Ford tech. And that is why Ford is the LAST place I want to go for repairs I cannot perform. I kept the old hose - anyone have a link to a spot where you can get the O-rings alone?

 

For the life of me I cannot understand why Ford took a simple design of using a hose clamp to seal a standard radiator hose to the radiator/thermostat housing to having a radiator hose with over molded plastic housings on each end of the radiator hose that requires two o rings to provide a seal provided that the two pieces that fit together are within tolerance of each other and make the freakin thing more complicated than it needs to be.


The KISS factor should apply to the engineers who designed this work of art.

 

Assembly line ease and replacement parts profit. They're all doing it.

 

been that was for some time now.

 

What model is your truck? Some of the '11s are just now leaking. They only have one internal oring where as all the new ones have two. Ford updated all of the single ring hoses on our med units free.

 

Funny thing, I bet if I go in under warranty for that and they find two o-rings....

Just like if ONE 12V battery goes they will only replace one under warranty and it is fine, but if I go in, not under warranty both have to get replaced. Some dealers won't even do the work if you don't replace both.