Help!!! Broken heater hose on firewall

gooffeyguy said:

...For the price of the Gruven parts you can replace with OE parts a few times every couple years. Their billet "Ts" are nice, but I don't like the use of silicone hose and worm drive clamps to connect them. First off it introduces twice the amount of failure points at the 3 connections (hose with 2 clamps on each connection) then the OE quick connects. Second, in my experience, worm drive clamps tear up silicone type hoses. The softer silicone will also push out through the slots in the clamp if tightened too much. If you go this route, get some spring clamps or fuel injection style clamps.

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^^^THIS^^^

@kns0517 The original one lasted 20 years and was still going until you broke it. The billet ones just aren't necessary. I'd bet that new OEM ones would outlast the vehicle at this point. Having said that, I did change mine to billet cuz it was cheap (I see their price has gone up, but still way cheaper than Grüven) and I like supporting my s10 v8 swap peeps. I had to trim the flare off the rear heater pipes, so the spring clamps were inadequate and I resorted to double worm clamps (blah!). I'll flare it one day when I'm bored and put the spring clamps back on cuz I prefer OEM design. In hindsight, I should've just went with new OEM parts.

Ok after reading these posts my repair is done using the GM OEM parts. It was so simple putting it back together vs removing them. Glad it's done. The parts cost more vs Dorman, Rock auto, etc. but hopefully I made the right choice in using GM parts.

jjohnsonlta said:

Ok after reading these posts my repair is done using the GM OEM parts. It was so simple putting it back together vs removing them. Glad it's done. The parts cost more vs Dorman, Rock auto, etc. but hopefully I made the right choice in using GM parts.

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You should be fine. Good job.

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Doubeleive said:

That removal tool is almost useless for plastic that has been in place for 20 years, easier to just cut them off with some needle nose pliers, the plastic just cracks apart or will tear like it softened up, break the short piece off and then you can just pull them off

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I tried the removal tool and no luck, I guess I am not strong enough to make them work. I took your advice and used my Dremel with cutting wheel to cut of the Ts on my 2001 Tahoe. The hard part is one has to climb into the engine compartment to be able to cut the Ts. One cut and a strong screwdriver helped break off the pieces. Used the Chevy Ts from the dealer instead of the Dorman ones even though I already had them.

Just a heads up for anyone reading this and getting ready for firewall tee replacement: I am not seeing the OEM tees on RA right now. I ordered the Dorman replacements for that reason, but after reading this thread and others I found out what a bad idea that was, and found the OEMs on Amazon.