Gents I need a little advice from some of you long time Civic/Accord owners. I am a recovered GM addict, and have only had Honda's in the family stable for 3 years now. I am sending two kids off to College one in a 97 Civic HX with 189K miles, and one in a 96 Accord with 135K miles.

Now both of these are loaded with formed small diameter hoses carrying radiator fluid here and there. Do any of you guys proactively replace this plethora of hoses, or do they never fail.

Experienced advice appreciated.... I am not referring to radiator hoses, those have been changed out.

 

i've had some high-mileage hondas, nary a hose has leaked except those that i tampered with ahead of time

 

99 hatch, 283k - only ever replaced the upper/lower radiator hoses. I've also got a 00 sedan Lx and coupe Ex with about 1/2 those miles and don't plan on replacing them either. Helping various friends over the years and I have yet to see one of these hoses fail from normal use.

I've seen these plastic/metal hybrid radiators develop a leak, I've seen radiators caps not hold pressure, I've seen thermostats not open/stick open - but I have yet to see a hose fail.

Being a GM guy, would you have gone ahead and replaced various hoses on an equivalent mile/year Chevy? I had an 89 Beretta once upon a time (back in 94-95 and had 100k+ miles) that did have a hose or three develop leaks.

I would say "No worries."

 

Ive never seen a burst coolant hose on a Honda. Including my brothers ~400,000 mile civic cx.

 

Thanks gents, that was exactly the advice I was seeking. I am getting more and more amazed every month at the reliability of my little fleet of Honda's. We now have 3 Honda's and 2 GM trucks.... and a bunch of diesel equipment.

I know how many hours maintenance/10K miles I used to spend on GM's. Honestly the Honda's are about a tenth of that. I love that little 97 Civic. I still might trade with the kid, I like driving it so much.

Chris, yes I would have changed out all the GM hoses by 100K miles. I have seen the heater hoses balloon around that time period. Also I never got over around 100K miles on a GM Fuel pump, in the trucks or the Buick/Chevy/Olds. I replaced the fuel pump in one 97 Tahoe with 99K miles in January, the brushes wore the commutator so far they fell out of the holder. Then I just changed proactively the pump in my other 97 Tahoe with 95K miles, that pump was about 80% worn. So the failure was not an anomaly, but looks like a "design for 100K" miles. I had to change the factory engine oil cooler hoses at about 80K because the inner liner was cracking and deteriorating and the hose was "weeping" oil over its entire length.

...sheesh I am actually starting to say " that GM junk..." My Dad would kill me if he heard me saying that... Remember I'm 54 and have wrenched my entire life. This is a profound, life changing experience for me...