I swapped cars with my son today as his car was suffering with another Hepu water pump failure. I was involved with replacing that when I got a call from him. He and his wife had gone downtown Cincinnati to celebrate his birthday. After they parked my car he saw the low coolant light come on and steam coming from under the hood.

He explained that there was coolant all over the brake booster and strut tower. I had to assume it was a heater hose. I packed the tools and several gallons of water. I also threw some odds and ends in the car before heading downtown.

When I arrive I had him start pouring water into the reservoir and immediately saw water coming out of one of the heater hoses. It was immediately apparent that the problem was a failed plastic heater control valve. The end of the valve had broken off.

I removed the hose clamps and pulled the plastic piece out of the end of the hose. One of the random items I had thrown in the car was some C clamps. I cut sections out of a towel and rolled them up. I then twisted them into the ends of the hoses and then clamped the area over the towel pieces with C clamps. We filled up the reservoir again and headed to their house.

The towel and clamp fix lasted the eight miles to their home. When I checked it upon arrival I realized it had not leaked at all. So we started home and the twenty five mile drive was without further incident.

I had changed the heater control valve a long time ago and I should have been doing some tugging and pulling on it occasionally to avoid a failure like this. I remember that the plastic valves were all that was available when I last replaced it. On the outside chance that someone has found a quality replacement more recently does anyone have a recommendation or a cross reference to offer up?



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Any twenty minute job is just a broken bolt away from a three day ordeal