My 945T has had a slow coolant leak for the last few months. In the recent past one of the heater hose connections at the firewall wasn't tight enough which was causing coolant to seep into the driver's footwell. I tightened the connections at the firewall abount a month ago but the coolant reservoir was still dropping every few days. The loss of coolant wasn't too severe so I kept an eye on the tank every 4-5 days and would top it off if necessary...effectively putting it off until a day when I could thoroughly go through the cooling system. The other day I checked the floor mats for moisture and to my surprise they were dry. Hmmm, a real head scratcher since I hadn't seen any drops on the driveway, I thought it was all collecting in the drivers footwell. Guess not.

Today I finally spent some time with the car, primarily to change the oil/filter, but also to investigate the coolant leak (which I didn't want to do because it's such a PITA). With the oil changed, I procrastinated on checking for the coolant leak by pulling off the throttle body for a cleaning, it's been about 25k miles and figured it could use it. While the TB was off I had a full view of the EGR valve and breather box and decided to procrastinate a little more by removing the EGR for a good cleaning and to finally replace the breather box which I've had in my cabinet for the last six months... The EGR removal/breather box replacement wasn't the easiest job I've done but it wasn't too bad. Time consuming but worth it in the end. In the process of pulling the EGR out I noticed some black discoloration on the EGR inlet pipe, a closer look and I realized that the vacuum hose to the heater valve was melted through, an even closer look revealed that the heater hose (the one with the valve) was touching the EGR inlet pipe. I felt around on the underside of this hose and surprise, surprise, the hose was melted to the point where it still held coolant but would have failed if it came into contact with the EGR pipe a few more times! My wife drives the car 450 miles/week and doesn't pay attention to her gauges like she should...I get chills thinking about what could have happened.

My warning to others: If you have changed your heater hoses, make sure that the plastic clips that are used to keep the hoses in one position are attached to the hoses and doing their job! There is mention in the FAQ of the hoses rubbing on the block, so I guess this problem is along the same lines. I'd like to recommend that the importance of the hose clips be emphasized in the FAQ. Does anyone agree?

The hose is presently duct taped until I can pick up a replacement on Monday/Tuesday. I'll be damn sure to check my coolant every day until the replacement is installed. Whew!!

Bean

--
'80 242GT 92k, '94 945T 123k