My upper radiator hose blew up on me the other day, and so I'm replacing both upper and lower hoses. The upper hose was easy to replace, but i'm havin' trouble getting to the lower hose. Do I have to remove the radiator or is it possible to do this without havin' to remove it.

Any suggestions would be appreciated...

Ed

 

have you tried removing the lower splash guard under the car?
That will open up a lot of room
Sometimes you end up cutting the old hose off, because its stuck on the radiator ends.
Slice along it at the connector
Use new hose clamps too- parts store or hardware store carry them
Be sure to follow the radiator burping instructions exactly to get rid of air bubbles or there will be problems- the heater must be open too,

You may as well drain the engine block now - get all the old coolant out-there may be rubber bits from blown hose in system
Removing passenger front wheel makes easy access from side to the hidden bolt
See owner manual- here is the free link to all of them
click year then model- move hand icon over index and everything is there for you
https://techinfo.honda.com/rjanisis/...01_OMANUAL.asp

 

I agree with the above post. You have to remove the splash shield. Then get the factory clamps moved toward the center of the hose and slit the hose ends with a utility knife. You can then peel the hose ends off. When you put it back together get screw type hose clamps.

Also drain the block and replace with Honda coolant.

 

Question concerning draining the block- if he replaces the hoses & runs water into the radiator (with engine running) until clean water exits the radiator drain, wouldn't that flush out the block? Or is it always best to drain the block & radiator for purposes of refilling the (completely drained) system w/ new 50/50 coolant mix?

 

You cant get all the fluid/crud from the block unless you remove this tiny, pain to reach bolt- that gets the passages opened, and the heater has to be open/on
Typically when you run the engine with water flushing- first it has to reach enough temp temp to open the thermostat and push water out of the engine, into the radiator.
Thats 2000 rpm for several minutes to make that even happen-
read the owner book on burping the radiator after filling! several rounds of 2000 rpm and fan off fan on---add coolant---cap partially on cap off cap on

Its not bad to reach-- once you know to remove passenger wheel and go from the side
Some years have a valve you turn and place for hose to fit on!!!

 

The reason you want to get ALL the old coolant out- After 5 years or so- the secret sauce in coolant breaks down and the stuff goes acidic
In an aluminum environment
You do the math~

 

Thanks 01tl, again, for the help. When I started sunday to remove the passenger wheel to get to the draining bolt, it seems one of the wheel bolts got damaged or something (excuse my english, it's not my first language). The point is I couldn't get the wheel out because of this one lug nut and bolt issue. I have to take it to a shop to get the whole thing out, I don't exactly know how, but the person I talked to says the problem has a solution. To top things off, I've got another CEL on.
Will keep you posted...

 

Hi edesoto:

I wonder what's the milage when this happened to your car.

 

I finally took the car to a tire shop a couple of days ago and they were able to get the lug nut and bolt out relatively easily and so today I'm going to try and change the hose myself and replace the coolant as per the manual's procedure. The CEL turned out to be (I think) a loosely closed gas cap.

KJ32: mileage was about 62K

 

I couldn't drain all of the coolant from the system because I could't, for the love of god, loosen the drain bolt on the block!! It's a pain in the @ss just to get a wrench in there to fit (I think I would need a 10" or 12" long 9/16 wrench to have a better shot at it), can't use a socket, won't fit. Tried using WD40 to loosen it, but it didn't work.

BTW, does this bolt have a gasket or "o" ring?

I think I will have to take it to someone with proper tools.

 

Dont give up. find a pipe to fit the wrench (flatten some to fit over the end) so you have more leverage

 

I finally could remove the drain bolt!!! Turns out I was looking at the wrong one...this one has the hose fitting so that you don't have to splash things when you drain. In the end all it took was half a turn of a 12 mm wrench and some elbow grease!! Let's hope there was no internal damage to the engine or water pump from running loose debris or non spec coolant for about four weeks.

Thanks to all involved and for all the suggestions.