Thread: UGH coolant leak=overheating=fail

Man I had a shitty day today. As soon as I got on the highway during rush hour my car started overheating. I turned on the heat to try to bring the temp down but it was blowing cold air :thinking:.

Anyway I got the car towed to a shop and after replacing the thermostat all was fine again, except for coolant line on the turbo leaking. I don't understand why my 8 month old Nissan thermostat would have failed nor why all of a sudden my coolant hose was leaking? Too much pressure build up?

Anyway I want to prevent this from occuring again because it wasn't fun having to wait for a tow truck (this was the first time my car has been towed). It also wasn't fun having to wait over 2 hours for the car to cool down just so the tech could get to the coolant line behind the turbo.

What I am thinking is get a set of the OEM hardlines and banjo bolts to mount to the turbo and then mount the rubber heater hoses to those lines. This way if this ever happened again, everything would be in reach and I wouldn't get stranded. The way I figure is the hardlines could resist more wear and tear and probably unlikely to fail in the event the thermostat fails again.

I am thinking of doing something with a quick release fitting. Has anyone done this before?

Use something like this:



Techna-Fit | Fuel Banjos & Banjo Bolts

Barbed fittings don't usually come off too easy.

I just replaced my return line with a pushloc hose (JEGS Performance Products 102010 JEGS Push-Loc Hose) and -6an straight ends. (JEGS AN Push-Loc Hose End Fittings - Black - JEGS)

I already had these banjo adapters (Banjo Fitting Kit, (1) Banjo fitting 14mm hole (for 14mm bolt) with -6 AN male flare : atpturbo.com)

And i put it in a thermal sleeve (http://www.jegs.com/p/JEGS-Performance-Products/JEGS-Thermal-Heat-Sleeving/1130487/10002/-1)

It wasn't the thermostat. I would check your coolant for traces of oil and check your oil for traces of coolant.

This is how mine are done. I used the factory hard lines and re-shaped them a bit. They run up by the thermostat housing, with hose connections there. They just use those OEM quick release hose clamps.
Never had a problem.
I have pics in my build thread if you want.

After doing all that work though, I can't say I would do it that way again. I would probably just use banjo hose fitting like Blair or Unijab posted and use hose the entire length. Just keep it away from heat and keep it from rubbing on anything too badly.

AKA head gasket or something cracked and pressurizing coolant.

But turbo cars are known to have lil stupid shit like this happen just from heat.

I want to run that on all my vacuum/coolant hose!

There wasn't any oil in the coolant nor have I been missing any oil. I check my dipstick atleast twice a week.


I'll check out your build thread. could you link me to the page the pics are on please? your build thread is huge lmao!

The only reason I wanted to use the hardlines was that I could relocate the hose to somewhere more accessible than at the back of the turbo. Had it not been for the line being at the back of the turbo I could have fixed the problem and gotten the car back on the road in the same time it took to wait for a tow. All I would have needed was a ratchet and a blade to trim the hose, both of which I had in the car.

I think the coolant hose failed because it was eroded from the inside by the barb fitting. The slit on the hose was towards the top.