Dear Fellow Brickboarders,

May this find you well. I just received a set of heater hoses for 93 940 from Borton Volvo in Minneapolis.

The hose into which the heater control valve fits, is made in Norway and looks to be perfect.

The return hose, made in France (Part #3507413) may be problematic. At the end of the longest section, there is a 3" "arm". Just after the bend, there is a ridge in the rubber, that runs parallel to the length (rather than around the circumference). This ridge is perhaps 1 1/4" long (it ends about 1" from the end of the hose) and about 1/16" high.

It appears as if a layer of reinforcing ended short of the end of the hose.

The other one that Borton had on the shelf was exactly the same.

If anyone has installed OEM Volvo heater hoses recently, did the return hose have this ridge at one end? Or, was the hose even (uniformly smooth) from one end to the other?

It is possible that the machinery was out of adjustment, and produced a batch of hoses that are not up to spec.

Given:
(a) the difficulty of installing these hoses
(b) the rapid coolant loss that occurs when they fail
(c) the possibility that the failure could be a couple of years down the road, but still far short of the normal working life

I'd sure like to find out if this hose has been made correctly, or - on the other hand - if it is defective.

Thanks for your help. I'm much obliged.

Yours faithfully,

spook