Wye leaking all of a sudden…?

[Rich W.]

We’ve had a few nights below freezing so my first thought when I saw a growing puddle of pink anti-freeze on the concrete around the rear tires on the drivers side was that I’d failed to properly prepare the coach for cold(er) weather. But I knew that wasn’t right because I recently changed the anti-freeze and it wasn’t that cold. So. what to do?

I raised the rear end with the jacks high enough to get under the coach on a creeper, placed a couple jack stands for safety, and scooted on under with my phone (for pics) and a flashlight. It didn’t take long to find the problem (see pics) and as luck would have it (finally) it was a very minor fix - nothing more than performing some stretching and contortionism with a stubby standard screw driver to tighten a clamp on a plastic wye that I couldn’t see from the position where I could reach it (barely), but could tighten it by feel.

This coach is only six years old, but apparently I am already experiencing the deterioration of my heater hoses, of which there are a great deal on these vehicles. I’ve worked up a list and I’m scheduling a visit to the Mother Ship for some other items, and I’ve included some chassis maintenance items I don’t feel like performing, so I’m adding some preventative heater hose replacement to the list. It was a significant relief to find that this was a minor issue this time - it seems so often its the opposite.

 

[Buly]

I’m not surprised your heater hoses are deteriorating. On our 2016 Acura SUV I was supposed to replace all engine cooling hoses couple of years ago, per factory maintenance schedule. Of course have not done it yet

 

[JRS]

Thanks for posting..... didn't know this would/could be a problem. Six yrs isn't that old.

 

[Rich W.]

Thanks for posting..... didn't know this would/could be a problem. Six yrs isn't that old.

I was surprised. I also have to replace my radiator overflow reservoir. It is heavily checked and most likely a ticking time bomb. Also unusual and unexpected at just six years. So I’ll take it to freightliner for that and have them check every inch of coolant hose while its on the rack. I’d rather pay $600-800 now for stuff that shouldn’t be bad yet, then incur the cost of a far more costly catastrophic failure on the road.

The failing tank (noticed it around 50k miles):