How to Replace Lower Radiator Hose 1998-2012 Ford Ranger

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In this video, we're going to be working with our 2001 Ford Ranger 4.0-liter V6. We're going to show you how to remove and replace your lower radiator hose, as well as how to properly fill and bleed your cooling system after you've finished the repair.

These hoses can become damaged from the outside by being chafed, cut or torn as well as getting oil contamination on the outside and breaking down the rubber, or if oil gets into your cooling system somehow they can wear out from the inside as well.

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Here are the items you'll need for this repair: 10mm socket, ratchet, socket extension, drain bucket, 19mm wrench, flat blade screwdriver, pliers, coolant, and funnel .

Remove the radiator cap at the top of the radiator on the driver's side. Simply push down and turn counterclockwise. Remove the four 10mm bolts securing this plastic cover underneath the radiator. We're going to use a socket, ratchet and a long extension for this. We put our vehicle on the lift to make it easier to show you, but you should be able to do this job with the vehicle on the ground.

You may need a flat blade screwdriver to remove the plastic push-pins securing it in, but usually you can just grab both sides and pull down. Set up a drain bucket underneath your drain plug, which is located on the passenger side of the radiator at the bottom. We'll open up the petcock with a 19mm wrench. Don't open the drain plug all the way, as coolant will come out the end where the plug sits in. We'll crack it loose until it starts draining and wait for the radiator to be completely empty.

Reinstall the petcock by hand. Just wipe that bit of drip off the bottom there. Using a pair of pliers, we'll compress the clamp on the lower radiator hose, which is on the driver's side here. Slide it back and out of the way, and twist it to release it from the radiator. Again, we have a drain bucket under here still to capture anything that comes out.

With the bottom radiator hose disconnected from the radiator, pull it down and out of the way. Reach up to the top clamp with your pliers to compress it and pull it down and off of the end of the hose. Twist the hose to release any corrosion on the bottom of the water pump and remove the hose from the vehicle. We replace the OEM spring clamps with these screw-style band clamps because those spring clamps can wear out over time and lose that tension and create leaks at the ends of the hoses which can be difficult to fix, especially when you just got done working with that part. I always change them out. If yours feel like they're in good condition, you don't have to, but I feel like these are more secure and easier to work with.

Reinstall the bottom radiator hose onto the bottom of the water pump. Rotate it to make sure that it's going to line up with the bottom of the radiator. We'll push this clamp up over the flange, and reach in there with a short flat blade screwdriver to tighten it down. Reinstall the bottom hose onto the radiator. Tighten this up with a flat blade screwdriver.

Reinstall the bottom cover. Remember it has the plastic clips to help you line it up. Then install the four 10mm bolts with a socket ratchet and extension. There are two on each side. Any time this coolant level has been dropped, you'll have to bleed the system the way you see here. We're going to refill it with a 50/50 mix of the coolant designated for our truck, as well as distilled water to get the proper mixture. We'll then fill the radiator through this funnel back up to the top level, run our vehicle up to temperature with the fan on the lowest setting and the highest heat we have to make sure that that air, if built up in the heater core, circulates through fully and removes any air pockets from our system before we test drive it and confirm our repair.

Make sure the petcock on your radiator is closed if you opened it to drain the system and always use a funnel and a drain bucket to prevent any spills when filling the system. After filling the radiator completely, start the vehicle with the radiator cap off and a drain bucket underneath. Set your fan for the heat to the lowest speed and the heat to the highest setting blowing out of the vents so we can monitor the temperature coming out of the heater core. While the vehicle is running, you'll notice air bubbles coming out of that filler neck. Be sure to keep an eye on that and keep the level up top throughout this process. You can see here that our vehicle needs more coolant.

This means that our vehicle has probably gotten up to temp and that thermostat is open allowing the air inside of the block to be pushed out by the coolant in the rest of the cooling system. With a quick check inside the vehicle we can see that our coolant temp gauge on our dash has gotten up to the normal operating temperature, so we know our thermostat is open and allowed the coolant to circulate into the block, pushing that air out. Now we just need to wait for the level to stop dropping so we know our coolant is full and check that we have proper operation of the heat to be sure that the heater core has had all those air bubbles pushed out as well.

Now that we have heat coming out of our vents, the bubbling has stopped and our radiator has maintained its level for a little while now. We’ll shut the vehicle off, and remove our funnel. Level stayed right up top. We'll reinstall our cap. The level in our radiator overflow tank, which is located here, hasn't changed so there's no need to touch that, but you can top it off if necessary. Now we'll wash down any spilled coolant off of our engine and test drive our vehicle. Always be sure to monitor your cooling temperatures any time you have to bleed the system on the initial test drive to be sure the vehicle doesn't overheat.
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