Anyone else with this problem?
I have a little over 63,000 miles on my 04 Explorer Limited 4X4. It has an oil cooler and rear climate control. There must be about 40 heater hoses and many of them have been leaking. After three trips to the Ford garage and $1,000 just about all the heater hoses are now new. It would have been more but the garage screwed up the estimate and had to eat the cost of dropping the gas tank to replace two of the hoses to the rear climate control.
I am in Phoenix, so don't know if this would affect the hoses.
I don't think the hoses were bad and I was tempted to buy a case of worm-drive hose clamps and replace all the factory clamps. However, some of the leaks were on hoses that had some kind of crimped on clamp.
Steve

 

Frankly, I think the dealer saw you coming, those crimped hoses are AeroQuip type high pressure hoses and rarely ever leak, especially at the crimped fittings. I haven't cut one of those hoses open yet but, they are usually reinforced with stainless steel or a nylon or other synthetic fiber. In any case, if it happens again take it to an independent garage that works on cars, trucks and equipment. They will likely have the equipment and fittings to make the hoses on site. The crimped fittings cannot be re-used.

I have heard some very bad stories on line and in forums about the Ford stores in Phoenix.

 

Although I don't have a lot of confidence in the Ford garage, they didn't try to rip me off. I took the Explorer in because it was leaving puddles under the right side of the engine, in front of the RR tire and behind the LT tire. I crawled under the vehicle and saw antifreeze dripping off the heater hoses, including the one with the crimped fitting. One of the reasons it took three trips to the garage was because they put the system under pressure and leak tested it and said it wasn't leaking in all the places I identified. To their credit they tried to save me money, but even though it might not have leaked when they had the vehicle they could see the drips and stains from the coolant. I don't know why it leaked in my driveway and not at the garage.
There is a term someone coined for problems that won't replicate themselves at the garage. A couple of weeks ago I drove all day with blinkers that wouldn't work--the blinker lights would turn on but not blink, although the emergency flashers would blink. I had to blink the lights manually with the blinker switch (yes, some of us still insist on using turn signals). I decided to stop by the Ford garage on the way home and 1 mile from the garage the blinkers started working again! They stopped again for awhile the other day and I only had to threaten to take the Explorer to the garage and the blinkers started working again!