I read somewhere on here, quite some time ago, that the black heater-hoses with a red liner are SILICONE life-time hoses and need not be replaced.

After reading this, I got to noticing that just about every 1st. Gen. Dodge I see has these red-lined hoses.

Are these hoses indeed silicone and are they indeed considered life-time ??


If so, then how about all of those little short elbow-hoses that are all over an automatic-transmission engine; are they silicone too ??


Thanks

 

The only true silicone hoses i have seen have been blue thats not saying that there arent any black ones. But since you say they are orange inside its possible.

 

Not orange --- RED.

 

BK, yes the black-red factory heater hoses are silicone, which is a lifetime hose.

 

How about all those odd little elbows in such inaccesible places as connected to the fluid-cooler on an automatic truck, and those two that connect the metal tubes to the engine on all of these trucks, are they silicone also ??


If not, it seems sort of silly to have the two simple to install hoses to be of a lifetime material and then have a dozen other impossible to get at little elbows scattered here and there that are not.



Thanks.

 

Unfortunately, you are correct. Those are perhaps the easiest hoses to replace on the whole truck. They are also the only silicone hoses on the truck, to my knowledge.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

If they're original, replace them when your coolant is drained. I used quality NAPA hose, which is not silicone.

 

Rather than start a new thread, I will re-ask essentially the same question posed by BearKiller in this existing thread:

Does anyone have a source for silicon lifetime heater hose elbows? If I ordered them from Cummins would I get silicon hoses?

Does anyone have experience with this product ($35/elbow seems pricey)?
http://www.stylinmotors.com/90Elbow.html

How about the Goodyear Hi-Miler hose (blue) sold by Summit Racing?

TIA

 

The cheapest I found was $28. I didn't buy it so I didn't save the link. From memory the elbow hose is 5/8" or 0.625" with a 2" radius. The OEM & Gates replacement versions usually last over 100K miles so to me it wasn't worth the extra cost. BTW, most but not all of the silicone elbow hoses are made long enough @ 4 to 6" that you could have enough straight hose left to do the two short pieces after trimming.