L300 hose clamps

I finally got arround to fixing the leaking joint on the heater core of my
'01 LW300.

Found that the joints are all O-Ring seals with a plastic retainer clamp
holding the joint together. The clamp holds the swaged flange on the core
joint to a similar flange on the pipe. As the lowest point in the system,
some debris had worked its way between the o-ring and the wall causing a
slow leak (a couple of drops on engine cool-down). The Dex-Cool was
definitely in need of replacement (95K) and was pretty foul looking. Flushed
out the entire system till water ran clear (fun doing it in 20F weather in
the driveway).

The plastic clip and O-Rings needed to be replaced to re-seal the heater
core to pipe connections. Careful as I was to remove the clips, they broke
and needed to be replaced. CarQuest didn't have a clue on this. Saturn
appears to sell the clips and o-rings only as part of kits - One for the
heater pipes ($55) and heater core ($250). A little ticked off, I took the
pipe kit. btw- the hoses are all marked EPDM which is the type of rubber
that is supposed to be compatible with Dex-Cool. I assume that the O-rings
should also be EPDM? Don't know how well general purpose Buna-N or Neoprene
seals might hold up.

Does anybody know if these clips and o-rings are available anywhere else?

tia - Oppie

 

For any engine coolant I have had no problems thus far using the Nitrile
rubber o-rings you can buy at harbor freight.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=2901

Are these the clamps you speak of
http://www.saturnfans.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=11657

Did they just break at the hinge? They should still be usable... Stick
whats left of them on and then "clamp over" them with regular hose
clamps if you can fit them on. Lemme know if that works.

 

If you want to stick with EPDM (you probably should),
http://www.mcmaster.com/ has an EPDM o-ring kit (not as complete as the
harbor freight kit, so double check the size range you need) and every
individual size (assuming you can find the ASA size number or exact
dimensions).

Steve

 

Thanks Guys.

Yes, the link with the picture of the clamps looks right. I can get the
exact dimensions if anybody needs them.

One clamp broke at the hinge and both broke at the locking clip. It occurred
to me after I bought the $55 pipe kit that I could merely place a
conventional hose clamp over the two halves of the original clamp. The
reason I decided not to go that route was that it seemed likely that if the
material was so brittle that it broke when removing the clip, it may well
split elsewhere under high coolant pressure. I had this picture of my wife's
shapely legs in my mind with second degree burns from scalding due to a
coolant breach. Pissed as I was that the clamp was not available separately,
$55 seemed like a reasonable expense for the safety.

I also thought briefly about using a tie-wrap (plastic tie) over the broken
hose clamp. Again did not do this for safety reasons. I've seen many of the
old Nylon plastic ties that get brittle with exposure to heat. Perhaps there
is a different material available for the plastic ties but nylon is the most
common material used.

When I interned as part of my engineering training, I spent a term in a
military contractor's reliability testing lab.Taught me many lessons in
safety and common sense that applied outside of the lab.

Bob 'Oppie' Oppenheimer