I have a 1998 camry, with 150K miles on it. My service advisor recommended replacing all the hoses, as preventive maintenance, at a cost of $1000. Does this sound like something I should consider? I plan on keeping the car for a while.
Thank you for your input.
This does not appear to be a sound investment since the vehicle is a 1998 with a 150k miles. Numerous hoses in the engine can be inspected visually for cracking or corrosion and most can be tested with a slight squeeze to see if there is leakage of any kind. My recommendation for you since you do want to keep this vehicle is to invest in a quality manual for the vehicle; Hayne’s and Chilton’s manuals are fine but the actual factory manual Toyota put out for that model year is definitely your best choice (the most expensive however). Skip the advice this time, invest a quality flashlight or similiar apparatus and do the checkover yourself.
If all your hoses are soft and not swollen you could skip changing them. Some of the Japanese cars hoses last a very long time. I drove an old Honda and Toyota and the hoses looked like they had been on there all 250,000 miles. Questionable info but they sure looked old.
$1000 sounds like a very high price for this. Get a second quote for sure. That said, my 1996 Chevrolet with 115,000 miles has the original hoses. We also have a 20 year old German car with the original hoses. I have been warned to change the hoses on the older car but so far so good. I keep a spare set of hoses for the older car in the trunk.
radiator hoses are not expensive to replace, under 100 at most places. Exotic hoses like heater hoses, power steering hoses, brake, A/C etc rarely if ever wear out and most people wait until a problem arises. I have 191,000 on my 92 Camry and only radiator hoses have been replaced, not because they went bad but just normal maint every 5 years or so. All others still original
I own a 1995 Toyota Previa with 222,000 miles and the only hoses ever replaced were radiator hoses. They were done once and for a set of 4 hoses (yes four) it was less than $300. My dealer never recommended any other hose changes.
Replace all the hoses as preventative maintenance? For $1000 ??!! This has to be the most blatant customer gouge that I have heard to date.
I would avoid that place like the plague. Replacing a hose that is deteriorated is one thing. To proactively replace them all as some type of distorted maintenance schedule is ludicrous.
What’s next, the engine???
I agree with Marc , visually check the hoses yourself , if there is not any cracking or corrosion there probably isnt a need to change them , but if there is I wouldnt pay someone $1000 to do it , you can probably find somewhere else that will do it for much cheaper if you dont have the know-how to do so yourself .
It depends what hoses we are talking about. Radiator and heater hoses are normally inexpensive and easy to replace. If they are 10 years old, I would replace them the next time I replaced my coolant, just as good PM. I would not replace power steering or AC hoses without a reason, they are fairly expensive (I just paid $500 for one AC hose) and their failure will not be catastrophic to the engine. I have replaced high pressure oil cooler hoses, just because they were old and I didn’t trust them (their failure would have been very bad). You need to use some judgement on other hoses, like transmission cooler lines. What is your cost/benifit for eliminating potential failures that could leave you stranded (but are not likely to cause hardware damage)? I would apply the same logic to belts (I.e., I carry a spare alternator/water pump belt just in case).
Like you I maintain my car carefully and drive it for a long time. After about 10 years all the coolant hoses have deteriorated and are liable to crack and leak. Your best and cheapest solution is to buy all new hoses from an on-line Toyota dealer-- OEM hoses are much better quality than after market hoses and usually not much more expensive-- and replace them yourself. Relace the antifreeze at the same time.
Dennis Waller
I sure wish on these discussions that Click and/or Clack would also chime in. My Wife’s 97 Monte Carlo only has less than 52,000 mi and my 2000 Miata only has 36,700. All the hoseslook great, the Miata virtually like new. And my car guy, who is THE CAR GUYS expert of experts, working on cars since the age of 12 and now in his mid 70s, can rebuild anything on the planet>>LOL>>tells me not to sweat it. He has an 89 Chevy PU that had over 100,000 miles on it, and only replaced the hoses when he had to do some engine work, the heads, manifold, or something, that I can’t recall him saying. He keeps telling me how much better todays hoses are, material wise, and to just look at the miles. Both of my mentioned vehicles are always garaged and well maintained (oil/filters every 3,000, or no less than once per year, since such low mileage is driven, having the cooling system full flushed only using extended life coolant, etc). My outside parked 94 Chevy S10 PU had its’ hoses all done at 13.5 yrs. old, with only about 49,000 mi at that time, due to a head gasket repair, a good time/reason to have it done.
I used to replace all my heater hoses and radiator hoses every time I changed the coolant, which was about every 4 years. I have found that with newer vehicles, made after 1990, the hoses seem to last much longer. I change them now every other coolant change, which I now do about every 5-6 years with the new long life coolants.
A $1000 to change the hoses? Sounds like they are trying to hose you. Are they including other maintenance items besides the hoses?
Are you due for a new timing belt? When replacing a timing belt on some engines, it is recommended to replace the water pump as well. Since you are also replacing the coolant, this would be a good time to add the hose and thermostat change, it should not add that much to the total cost.
I have a '91 V6 Camry with 158,000 and I’m the original owner. I replaced the bottom radiator hose when I replaced the radiator. All other hoses are original.