I am redoing all my hoses with factory Honda parts. Spent about 5hours last night just getting the "easily" accessible hoses off and replace them. Man, what a tedious job. My fingers hurt today.

I also replaced the three thinner lines that go to the air intake. I re-used the original clamps, but the hoses don't seem to be connected very strongly. Should I have replaced those small hose clamps with something else?

Anyway, not done yet, the only three hoses left are the one from the block (under the distributor) to the heater valve, heater valve to firewall and the return line from fire wall to the block.

What is the best way to remove the hose with clamp under the distributor (please don't tell me I need to remove the distributor). The tabs are facing the front of the car.

Also, the hose clamps on the fire wall are facing the ground so besides being nearly impossible to get to in the engine compartment, the original clamp tabs are facing down. How should I go about getting those compressed and then over the bump on the fitting? Or should I cut the hoses close to the fittings hoping it will give me enough room to access the clamps.

The hoses I replaced last night were already swollen and it was a pain to get the clamp off over the bump.

Also, can I disconnect the heater valve from its bracket? I have the shop manual, but can't find anything in it about replacing the valve. I would need to connect the short hose back to the valve first before attaching it back to the firewall. The firewall end of the valve is totally in-accessible currently.

Any tips appreciated. Hope not to have to spend another 5 hours on these three hoses.

Thanks, Roger

 

use worm clamps if you're concerned about snugness. i use a large pair of vice grips to grab that clamp under the distributor, grab it and pull the clamp back over the hose. yes, you can disconnect the valve, but you shouldn't need to. no reason not to cut the hose if you're replacing it.

 

I finally finished replacing all the water/heater hoses. Took me another 4 hours to get this done properly.

For the record, this is a California 2000 Honda Civic EX with 221k miles and original hoses and clips (yes, apparently the hoses have held up this long (swollen now though), but I thought since I am doing a timing belt job and have to drain the coolant anyway, I might as well replace them all). Make sure you get original Honda replacement parts. I got them from BK Honda parts. Typically takes about 4 days to get from Illinois to California).

For the three heater hoses, I got some long needle nose pliers from Harbor Freight. I got the following four sets:

1. Hose pliers

2. 45deg 11inch needle nose pliers

3. Set of straight and 90deg 11inch needle nose pliers

4. Set of straight and 90deg 16inch needle nose pliers

I first removed the air cleaner rubber tube (make sure to disconnect the electrical connector from the throttle body and the sensor on the rubber tube) and set it off to the side to create some space. I also disconnected the lower radiator hose again (which I had already replaced) from the thermostat neck and pushed it down out of the way (make sure to also remove the plastic bracket the holds the heater hose to the lower radiator hose).

I managed to get the clip off the heater hose under the distributor by using the 11inch 90deg pliers from the front of the car, but no way to get a knife in there, so I disconnected the hose first from the heater valve, then moved it towards the front of the car and pulled on it like crazy towards the air cleaner and coolant reservoir. It then popped loose!

For the other two hoses on the firewall, I first removed the hose closest to the driver side. I also used the bend long needle nose pliers for this and once I had the tabs in a better location (pointing towards the driver side instead of the bottom of the car), I put a small vice-grips on them to squeeze and hold them together and then pushed with a long screw driver on the edge of the clip near the firewall to move the clip slowly over the bump. The hose was quite swollen so it didn't move very easily. I sprayed them with silicon spray as well to make it a bit easier to slide, but still took a lot of effort to slide the clamp over the bump. After I had the clamp off, I used a Stanley knife (use a new blade) to cut the part that sits on the fitting (from firewall to past the bump on the fitting, length-wise in the direction of the hose), then wiggled a bit and the hose came off without damaging the fitting. Make sure to cut the hose as the fittings on the firewall are very thin and delicate.

After having removed this first hose from the firewall, the clip on the second hose on the fire wall was accessible with pliers and vice-grip as well. I cut this hose in a similar way as the first hose.

I left the other end of this short hose attached to the valve. I un-clipped the heater control cable from the valve and removed the circular eye from the heater valve rod. Then I removed the nut (10mm socket) from the firewall that holds the heater valve bracket to the firewall. After that you can take the complete heater valve assembly (valve + bracket) from the car with the short hose still attached. You can replace the short piece with the valve of the car.

Then put everything back in reverse order. Make sure to spray silicon spray on the inside of the hose ends, the outside, the clips and the fittings. They will go back on very easy that way and it will also make it easier to slide the clips back over the bumps.

Two things to do when putting the clips back:

1. For the clip of the hose under the distributor, make sure the clip tabs point towards the firewall instead of towards the front of the car (this will make it easier to remove them next time as the clips are better accessible that way).

2. For the clip of the hose on the firewall closest to the driver side, make sure to point the clip tabs towards the driver side, not the bottom of the car so next time it will be easier to get pliers on them.

After all your hoses are back in place, make sure to put the air cleaner rubber tube back and reconnect all electrical connectors.

Hope this is of some use for anyone else going down this road. Important to get the right tools (pliers in this case) before you start.

Cheers! Roger

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Nice work, you're are correct in replacing all of your hoses that have coolant running in them while planning out the timing belt job, specially with that many miles.

I recently did the same for my sisters integra, car has about 250k miles but the engine has about probably 100k. I did the timing belt job and replaced all hoses, cam and crank seals, oil pan gasket, tranny drain and fill. Damn car still running.

 

I was never able to get the firewall heater hoses off, they were rock solid and it was feeling like it would stress the connections too much

I used silicon hoses from amazon. A full set was $60, and I figured I would spend that much on a replacement set anyways.

Changing all of the hoses really did make a big difference in engine Temps for me atleast making everything much more predictable