Hi everyone, first post! and a bit of an urgent/noob one

Noticed a odd smell just as I came home last night and the coolant reservoir was completely empty. Proceeded to remove it and found a crack down the side, so I got online and ordered a new one today..

Fast forward to tonight, had a mate come over to check over the car and turns out coolant was rapidly leaking from a pipe at the rear of the engine! (so not sure if it is the reservoir too, but it's being replaced either way)

Edit: the leak is on the underside halfway along the pipe being held, picture was taken as it was removed

I have attached pictures of which pipe it is, sorry they aren't the best

Is it a simple replacement hose jobbie, re fill coolant and off I go?

Any advice for a rookie appreciated.

Cheers!

Where has the pipe with the green connector been removed from? Looking at the picture it's from the bulkhead/heater matrix

Bulk head I believe? The rear side of the dash if that makes sense.

My car minded mate removed it and I did wonder why it went in that direction.

Bulk head I believe? The rear side of the dash if that makes sense.

My car minded mate removed it and I did wonder why it went in that direction.

Yeah, that's for the heater matrix then - the part which gives you warm air in the cabin.

I've never seen them with connections on them like that though, is it broken in any way?

Yeah, bit of googling suggests it is the heater matrix/ac coolant pipe.

On the pipe that's being held in the picture, the leak is on the underside of the pipe where the darker wet patch is

Is it a straight swap on the pipe?

I've seen that type of connection used before for the coolant joints on the HVAC unit. Should be a straight forward swap once you've got the new pipe.

Helped one of our neighbours out who had similar leak on same pipework but car was an Astra and as the split was right next to the stub on the engine I got away with cutting it shorter and re-fitting it. These pipes take a fair bit of wear and tear as they'll flex continually with the engine rocking on it's engine mounts while the other end of the pipe is fixed to the body.

Don't know why ford couldn't just fit the pipes straight onto the bulkhead fittings instead of those plastics connectors. Ford are good at things like that right enough.

I would get another pipe and swap it, very easy to do. Unless as above the split is very close to the end of the hose.

Don't know why ford couldn't just fit the pipes straight onto the bulkhead fittings instead of those plastics connectors. Ford are good at things like that right enough.

I would get another pipe and swap it, very easy to do. Unless as above the split is very close to the end of the hose.

Couple of reasons I can suggest for Ford (and other manufacturers) using that specific type of connection to the HVAC - lot of HVAC units are manufactured by same suppliers and could be that they specify the type of connector to be used. If the pipes were fitted directly to the HVAC there would be difficulties in then fitting the instrument panel into the car especially if an automated cell is used to do this as the pipes would need routing through the hole in the bulkhead.

And lastly I can imagine if using jubilee clips as an alternative fixing that tooling access would be quite difficult and possibly fall outside of ergonomic standards which are a major consideration when an operator will be doing the same job every couple of minutes for a whole shift at a time.

Any car I have worked on with or without aircon has always had the heater matrix hoses/pipe work directly onto the stubs that protrude through the bulkhead and held on with a spring clip.

Never have I come across those connectors and it would seem to me like they are overkill and the also introduce another joint/point of failure to the mix.

Any update on the leak?

All sorted today - new pipe from ford (28£!) and new reservoir fitted. Bit of fiddling later, runs perfect.

Cheers for the help

Sorry to bump an old thread but how on earth do you disconnect that ***** plastic clip