Dealer. I bought some fakes off eBay.
DIY: Replacing heater hose pipe T's *important* (7 Viewers)
- Thread starter paflytyer
- Start date
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Installed brass heater T's to replace the plastic OE ones. Plastic OE ones were replaced by me 9/10/19 at 132,000. Those crumbled. The ones I took out yesterday at 160,000 were in great shape, though one showed some signs of seepage. These Brass ones fit just right.
snowglobe
SILVER Star
Which size? You linked to 3/4 5/8 3/4
I bought what I linked.
snowglobe
SILVER Star
Thanks. How did you pick that size? Much larger than the non barbed version.
lowenbrau
SILVER Star
Glad I found this thread. I’m due.
94SRUNNER
GOLD Star
Whoa! Good catch
I just did this job and thought the OTRAMM video was gold. Such a great tip to use the Kiwi right angle pliers when dealing with the OEM spring clamps.
I thought I could improve on Toyota's plastic tees and replaced with the Autotecnica metal tees (part # TY0617365-PRM), but had mixed results. The tee closer to the driver's side replaced without issue using the original hoses and spring clamps. The tee towards the middle of the vehicle leaked at the bottom and forward ports.
I fixed the leaks using the Breeze 9408H stainless liner clamp (13 - 23 mm) for the bottom port and the Breeze 9410H stainless liner clamp (14 - 27 mm) for the forward port. They were $2 each and available at a local heavy truck parts house. Proper torque on these clamps is 30-45 in-lbs.
If I was doing this over again, I would have replaced with OEM plastic tees and OEM hoses, retaining the original spring clamps. Then changing only the plastic tees every timing belt job. The reason being, once you have the Kiwi pliers, the spring clamps are effortless to work with, whereas the worm clamps require ratcheting and a torque wrench to reset.
If going with the OEM plastic tees and spring clamp option, I'd suggest changing the hoses the first time you do the job, because the factory installs the spring clamps in a difficult orientation. Changing the orientation to be more accessible for the clamp pliers can cause leaks, hence the suggestion to start over with new hoses.
I thought I could improve on Toyota's plastic tees and replaced with the Autotecnica metal tees (part # TY0617365-PRM), but had mixed results. The tee closer to the driver's side replaced without issue using the original hoses and spring clamps. The tee towards the middle of the vehicle leaked at the bottom and forward ports.
I fixed the leaks using the Breeze 9408H stainless liner clamp (13 - 23 mm) for the bottom port and the Breeze 9410H stainless liner clamp (14 - 27 mm) for the forward port. They were $2 each and available at a local heavy truck parts house. Proper torque on these clamps is 30-45 in-lbs.
If I was doing this over again, I would have replaced with OEM plastic tees and OEM hoses, retaining the original spring clamps. Then changing only the plastic tees every timing belt job. The reason being, once you have the Kiwi pliers, the spring clamps are effortless to work with, whereas the worm clamps require ratcheting and a torque wrench to reset.
If going with the OEM plastic tees and spring clamp option, I'd suggest changing the hoses the first time you do the job, because the factory installs the spring clamps in a difficult orientation. Changing the orientation to be more accessible for the clamp pliers can cause leaks, hence the suggestion to start over with new hoses.
Perhaps not, but the metal T's spec'd for our vehicles didn't work well with the factory spring clamps, as described above and by many others.
As mentioned, a workaround is to use the Breeze 9408H (bottom port) and 9410H (side ports) clamps.
The overwhelming majority of people on this thread are using imperial sized metal Ts - like 5/8 x 5/8 x 1/2, that they purchased at Lowes or someplace. They tend to leak because they are the wrong size. Using a stronger hose clamp to compensate for the wrong size T is a bad idea. With correctly sized Ts, plastic or metal, the original clamps work just fine.
Legitimately asking because I don't know...do you really think the majority of the forum members here are going to the plumbing section of the home improvement store when the part spec'd for our vehicles is only $10 on RockAuto and elsewhere? And what I'm saying is that even with the Autotecnica metal part designed for our vehicles, which is presumably the metric sizing, two of the six connection points leaked when using the factory spring clamps. It would appear that at least some of the aftermarket did not get it right when they duplicated the OEM plastic Toyota tee and made the ports a slightly smaller outer diameter.
Yes, that's exactly what happened - people bought imperial sized Ts from a variety of sources in the U.S. See the thread. Don't presume the Rock Auto part is correctly sized - measure it. The size chart you posted above raises more questions than it answers.
I love Rock Auto, but for the low price ($6 each?), get your plastic tees at the dealer.
lowenbrau
SILVER Star
All fixed up now. For the minimal cost and effort, I think I'd just swap them all out at the timing belt interval (rad too).
One owner 2006 first replacement at 250,000. Frequent coolant flushes. Never done before. About to replace the radiator etc.
Budget 2 hours if you are going to clamp the hoses in case the T’s fracture on you.
I used about 4 different hose clamp pliers.
Hot side left bits in the tube.
Budget 2 hours if you are going to clamp the hoses in case the T’s fracture on you.
I used about 4 different hose clamp pliers.
Hot side left bits in the tube.
Hang on.. that was with my VIN for my 02 set.. now w/o it's back to $11!!!!
