Danny B

Has anyone ever had the IC hoses work there way loose before?
Bloody things seem to slip every month, and just when I need to overtake someone and put my foot down I hear this hissing / sucking noise from the engine and have to crawl home off boost

NelsonUK

Danny - Yep exact same problem on my prev 93WRX. All I did was buy a new hose clip from Halfords it was a slightly smaller diameter and having removed hose to clean it up - I fitted the new clip and the pipe never worked loose from that day forth.

Just to say that there was nothing wrong with the prev clip but I thought I'd replace it just in case and this seemed to work....

Dunno if this is of any use but for a few pence its worth a go.

HTH

RON

Make sure that the inside of the pipe when you refit it is spotless, even a small trace of oil won't help! it might be 'sliding' on the oil!

Ron.

greasemonkey

Yep, same goes for the outside of the turbo and intercooler/throttle body spigots. Ideally clean them all with aerosol degreaser then use something like hair lacquer (no, really!) as a lubricant to help you get the pipes on.

The lacquer will evaporate out leaving the piping firmly attached...

Danny B

Thanks guys, glad it's not just me then.
I may invest in a slightly smaller hose clip to see if that cures it.
I remember in my BMX days we used to put our grips on with hairspray, they would slide on nice and easy down the handle bars and then set like rock in a few hrs. Maybe I should do the same to the hoses
Incidentally are these the same as the PPP hoses, just badged Samco instead of Prodrive?

Italian Jobber

Danny, I assume the Samco I/C hoses you have are silicone ones???
If they are you need to be VERY careful about clamp choice, tightening loads and cleanliness of the interfacing components.
Sounds strange but if you over-tighten the clamps they will have reduced sealability (I have designed some intercooler systems in the past).
The top clamp manufacturer in UK is Norma products, they do a very trick worm drive clamp with an integral spring to improve sealability, if you can get them ask for the 9mm wide ones (Halfords ones are crap to be honest and not designed specifically for I/C systems more for cooling hoses (big difference).
The best thing to do is a two stage tightening process. Once at 1,5-2,0 Nm Max and then again after 1 Hr (Both when car is cold, this will give the best sealability). Also ensure that the spigot the hose goes onto is rough enough, if it is smooth you wil get improved blow-off performance if you roughened the surface first with some sand paper (bung the end first though to prevent any dust ingress).Hope this helps.

Danny B

Thanks very much, very usefull info. I will bear that in mind next time I am tightening them

Italian Jobber

Danny, The torque I mentioned is for a different type of clamp. I/C clamps of the size and type found on the subaru need something like 4,8Nm torque (5Nm absoloute MAX).
Appologies for any confusion.