The “Pesky Heater Hose Repair” is Land Cruiser FJ80 specific, and is an essential repair to make sure your rig is reliable. Once the heater hose fails, all of your engine coolant will end up on the ground. If you have 60k miles, or it has been 60k miles since the last repair, replace the heater hose!

The following steps were taken from a contributor at Slee Offroad. I followed these steps and found them to be quite useful! Slee Offroad also provides the heater hose replacement kit. I did mine for $13.00 by buying the hose separately, but the kit is a complete replacement. Up to you! Link below!

Remove rock guard under radiator.
Drain antifreeze.
Remove front left tire, and the middle and rear wheel well curtains.

Working from inside the wheel well:

Locate hose and either remove or relocate hose clamps up onto metal pipe.
Cut off hose with a utility knife by cutting the hose length wise.

NOTE: be careful not to damage the metal tube or block nipple.

Working from inside the engine compartment:

On the upper part of the tube remove the hose that attaches to the heater valve.
Remove the 12mm bolt from the upper bracket on the metal tube.

Working from inside the wheel well

Rotate the metal tube and remove old clamps.
With the tube rotated push the new hose completely on the metal tube so the hose end is flush with the end of the metal tube.

NOTE: the last 1/8″ is a little tough because the hose is now bending around a curve in the pipe, I applied a liberal amount of spit to help it slide.

Place two new clamps over the new hose and up onto the metal tube.

Working from inside the engine compartment:

Replace the bolt into the tube’s upper bracket and reattach the hose to the heater valve.

NOTE: this should align the metal tube with the block’s nipple provided the hose is completely pushed onto the tube.

Working from inside the wheel well:

Using the flat side of a large screwdriver push the hose onto the block nipple.
Install clamps, curtains, tire and fill radiator.

Slee Offroad