radiator hoses

[afpj]

Hey all, my yukon is 10 yrs old and 135k miles. It still has the original hoses. Water pump changed about 30-40k miles ago, and radiator flushed last year. Hoses feel fine, but read somewhere to prophylactically change them anyway every 75k miles or 5 yrs. Does anyone here recommend changing them if they look/feel OK? Tried to do a quick search and nothing came up about this specific question, so I apologize if this has been answered before.
If the hoses should be changed, probably should change the long skinny ones that go to the heater too? Any suggestions on how to burp the system (like leave the cap off the reservoir for a little while it runs)?
TIA.

 

[M3PO]

I'm not one to go changing stuff, because in my mind OEM items are the best thing you can buy almost always. That said, yes I would change hoses that old. I sell fluid power components, and the shelf life of hose(pneumatic, hydraulic, water, etc) is typically 6 years, that's "shelf life" not being used. Now there are an infinite amount of compounds, media, temp, pressure, etc that come in to play. If you do replace your hoses, like anything else OEM I take off my vehicles, I keep them until I am sure the replacements are sound.

 

[afpj]

OK, thanks for the advice. I never thought to keep the original OEM stuff as backup. Always learn something new here.

 

[afpj]

Just changed the hoses. What a pia the lower one is with oem clamps. Those oem hoses were still in pretty good shape so will hang on to them for backup. Piece of mind is priceless

 

[M3PO]

Piece of mind is priceless

Yep, I like to know that I aside from maybe an oil change and fuel, my vehicles are ready to drive across country.

 

[afpj]

Hmmm, now after changing the hoses, running it until warm and topping off the resevoir, ran to the store 20 minutes on freeway, came home and topped off some more, then shut it down. After a couple hours of cooling down, the top hose was collapsed about half, so loosened the resevoir cap and let some air in (I guess) and the hose plumped up again. Did I ruin the hose by letting it collapse? I don't recall ever having to do this before, but I cannot remember.

 

[southboundchicken]

your hose should be fine, make sure you switch to heat so you can purge the heater core and keep an eye on your fluids

 

[afpj]

Dang, I forgot to run the heat. Thanks for reminding me.
Since I didn't empty the fluid (did not do a flush), what happens if you don't purge the heater core?