Ran into a peculiar problem this weekend. My car (89 Sedan Deville w/ 4.5 V8 TBI), developed a moderate coolant leak. Quickly pinpointed the culprit, which was a short hose behind the top of the throttle body cover, above the rear valve cover. Quickly found a replacement hose at a local parts store, quickly discovered the hose is not inherently replaceable. There are 3 hoses that all come together into a molded rubber tee fitting, and the leaking hose connects from the tee to the engine. A few hours on the internet, including RockAuto.com and gmpartsdirect.com turned up nothing in the way of a replacement. For the time being, I cut out the bad section of hose, used a piece of threaded brass pipe as an inline connector (best thing I could find at the local hardware stores), lathered it with a suitable sealant and connected it to the new hose with a couple hose clamps. First, has anyone else encountered this? And how did you deal with it? Second, does anyone know what would be a better inline connector, perhaps something with barbs or with flared ends so the clamps will hold better. Lastly, does anyone know if this entire hose assembly can be purchased anywhere? I assume the only place it could be found, if it exists at all, would be from the dealer, or a salvage yard. I'd probably pass on a salvage yard part in this case, and being it's the weekend I can't call the dealership parts department. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, if I ever meet a GM engineer, he's gonna wish that he was wearing a cup.

 

On earlier models (85-88)hose assembly consisted of metal "T" 2 molded hoses and 1 essentially straight hose. Should be fairly easy to fabricate. Note: Earlier cars had hot water valve which was eliminated on later models. Also 94-95 Deville (4.9),not Concours(4.6)hose assembly may work.

 

Hm, I might check into the earlier models. I do have a couple donor cars, including an '87 Coupe Deville. If the setup looks the same, I'll steal the metal T off of it, put new hoses on it, and swap it into the '89.