Radiator Overflow Hose Incident

[DK_Farms]

As I mentioned in another post, I foolishly brought my 4610 in to the dealer for its first service interval. I remember telling the service manager explicitly " Everything is working, please see that it stays that way." Well, guess what. I brought the tractor home and hooked up the RFM to mow a neighbors new yard addition. When I was on the second to last round, about 2 hours of mowing time, I would get the occassional wiff of antifreeze. Although it was 97 degrees outside, the temp gauge was still low. When I got home, I opened the hood and noticed a few drops of antifreeze scattered around the hoses and top of the engine. The source was the radiator overflow hose. Somehow it had gotten on the backside of the fan and the turning blades had worn the hose down until it made a pinhole that seeped a little. I replaced the hose, made it a little longer, and loosely tied it back to the radiator mounting frame with a ty-wrap to keep that incident from happening again. Was the hose in that position before it went for service? I don't know for sure, bit since I already have a long list of screw-ups with my name on it, I'll use the "coincidence factor" and blame this one on the dealer. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif Next time you go under the hood, check that hose routing.

 

[beenthere]

Similar thing happened to me, with my 4300 (radiator overflow tube leading back to the overflow container).

The plastic tubing became brittle and full of holes and the antifreeze solution was leaking out those holes. As near as I could tell, it was just a poor quality plastic and I replaced it with another plastic tubing.