Slow coolant leak 08 limited

[RAYMONDK]

My 08 Limited lost most of the water and went into self protect mode which scared the crap out of my son. I didn't know what is was until I read the owners manual. The stupid thing has no low coolant warning. The leak was hard to find because the leakage runs down the bottom of the hose then back to the frame where it disappears. The culprit was the plastic "Y" fitting used to split the heater supply to the rear heater. It's located halfway back from the front of the engine on the passenger side and not visible from above, The entire heater supply is a multi-hose assembly that is made with plastic fittings and connected with non reusable molded plastic clamps. The assembly lists for over $200. and includes all the hoses and fittings; New PLASTIC fittings. No way! I took a Polybutylene TEE (copper) and 90 EL (copper) and assembled with a short polybutylene connector and jammed it in. There is very little clearance between the exhaust manifold and the frame. It took several hours to come up with the solution but I just wasn't about to put another plastic fitting in knowing it will fail again.

 

[Explorer_PL]

Very common on the v8's, many here went thru this including myself. Most were able to cut the OEM Y and just install a plastic Y for few bucks from any parts store.

I did mine probably 100k ago and still holds.

 

[Explorer_PL]

Ray-
what I forgot to say is that's great that you came up with a work around as opposed to pay 200 bucks for the OEM part. When you can think creatively, you can keep them going at a very low cost.
Nice job