I did a search, and nothing came up, but I had my idler arm changed at a shop (I admit, I fell into scare tactics, but it was only 3/4 an hour labor and they used a Moog part, so it's not that bad) but when I finally got the car in the air on my own, I noticed that the lower radiator hose is touching my idler arm. I know this isn't normal, and I'm sure it's causing hell on my hose, but they never charged me any "misc. fees" or for another hose, so if it's still my premolded factory hose, did they put it on wrong or something? I'm gonna get under it and dink around tomorrow, just wanted some advice.

 

if they didnt install the idler arm at the same height as it was, then maybe you will have an clearance issue, the moog part may also be a little beefier than the stock piece.

how badly is it contacting the arm? You may be able to pull the hose off and cut it a tad shorter and that will give more clearance, and a good reason to change the coolant.

 

Ya most likely, the moog is beefier and they didnt tighten it down in the same spot it used to be. Its not a big deal as long as the car was aligned properly after. Id take that hose dissconnect it see if it will push it farther to the waterpump or the radiator if not, just trim some off and push it up more.

 

The alignment is the exact same as it was before the the arm was replaced, and they didn't do an alignment after I had it installed. Is this bad? Steerings a bit tighter now though. I'm getting under there tomorrow (plugs, wires, temp sender, O2 sender, cap, rotor, rad flush, etc. Basically the whole 10 yards of tune up) and will see if there's anything I can move.

 

You said you noticed the hose when you got the car up in the air. Is the hose still rubbing when the car is on the ground?

 

Well, the front suspension was loaded (drive up ramps) the rear wasn't, but that shouldn't make any difference with the steering. So I'm assuming that it's hitting all the time.

 

The lower hose on one of my 83's would rub the way you discribe. I trimmed some of the hose on the water pump side, then reinstalled and never had any more problems with it.

 

I just finished replacing all of the hoses on my `88 Iroc and every one of them needed to be trimmed to fit correctly. I think the manufacturers make these hoses to fit more applications than ever before so they are not going to be a perfect fit every time.

 

Yes, rad hoses are all cut-to-fit.