My van did the same started leaking from the y pipe. Instead of paying the rediculous price of 140$ for the part and an hour of shop time at the dealer I went to the local auto parts store and picked up a 5/8" plastic T fitting with barbed ends and 1' of 5/8 heater hose and 3 hose clamps and fixed it myself in less than an hour and 10$ in parts.

 

I've been thinking about this. A tee should be able to replace a Y, provided you position the T the same as the Y. So, the coolant will force out of the engine, and into the bottom of the T, and divert equally in two directions.

Flowrate shouldn't be seriously impacted, as you're feeding the T through an inlet that has the same diameter as the two outlets. Therefore, the flowrate restriction will be the inlet and not the diversion itself.

 

A local Vermont auto parts store stocks this 5/8" "Y" connector:



Cost just under $9.00, it's made to use with a Kat's circulating tank engine heaters. It's Kat's Accessory part number 28110. A Google search found a couple of online stores that also have them.

Since this seems like a fairly common failure, I picked one up just to have on hand.

George

 

I have been having the same issue with my 08 Grand Caravan. It smells like something is burnt after the engine is good and hot. I found a drip at the Y connector that would fall onto the exhaust shield. I just couldn't figure out how to fix it because you can't just put a hose clamp around that type of fitting. I just had some recall issues done at the dealer. Then they wanted to charge me $358 to replace those hoses. $117 just for the parts. Reading this, I think I can just do it myself and save the $$. Thanks everyone for the good info. Will let you know how it comes out.

 

It was a fairly simple fix. I got a part very similar to the one georgef posted and 3 hose clamps. It was a Murray Climate Control heater fitting from O'Reilly's(pn 84757). I carefully cut off the plastic hose clamps. Scored it with a razorblade(don't cut into the hose) and pryed them off. Note: the two clamps at the top of the Y, toward the firewall are connected. Put the hose clamps on, then the Y fitting, and tighten down. Just snug them so you don't crack or break the fitting. There was a bit of cussing involved. The old Y didn't want to come off real easy, but it's done. Hope this helps.

 

There is a recall on this, so if your original cap is leaking, Chrysler will replace it for free.

 

Have the same problem with the y-connector leak. I will try fillerup's solution tomorrow. Bought the y connector at O'Reiley's for $7; hose and clamps are cheap, too. They had to really look to find the y connector; nothing came up on their store computer at first. This is the part you want: http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/MRY0/84757.oap. Part number 84757.


http://images.oreillyauto.com/parts/.../mry/84757.jpg

Hope the repair works. Dealer wanted $130 for the OEM part and $350 total for the install. Crazy money to fix what seems like a crappy design flaw.

 

Easy, easy fix! Took me and a friend 15 minutes.

No need to cut the plastic clamps off. Here's are the parts you'll need to buy:
- A segment of 5/8" heater hose about 3" long. These are cheap, so buy a new one for about $2.
- The y connector mentioned above. Cost about $7.
- 3 or 4 hose clamps with an inch diameter. Don't but ones that are too small; remember 5/8" is the inner diameter of the hose; your hose itself is just under an inch in diameter. This will cost you about $4 total. You will need at least three new clamps, but you can reuse a quick clamp on one part of the hose.

Here's the process:
- Cut the hose off at all three ends of the y connector. Don't monkey around trying to cut the plastic clamps off. Cut the hose as close to the plastic clamps as possible. You'll feel the end of the old connector through the hose.
- Remove the old y connector. You might get some coolant leak, but we had hardly any.
- Unclamp the stub of a hose that used to be attached to the "bottom" of the Y connector; that is, the front of the y connector closest to the front of the car. Note that you are unclamping the part of the hose that goes into the engine. This is a quick release clamp, so use a pair of channel-lock pliers. Put the clamp to the side as you can reuse it later.
- Remove this stub of a hose from the engine block. (Technically, it's not the engine block; its probably a valve that connects to the engine block.) It may be a little hard to remove. I used a long flat-head screwdriver and pried it off the tube.
- Now cut yourself a piece of the new 5/8" heater hose that is a little longer than the stub. An inch or two longer is fine. Basically, you want this new hose to be as long as the original heater hose connecting to the "bottom" of the y.
- Clamp this new heater hose back onto the engine block or whatever it is. You can reuse the quick release clamp or put on a new clamp. I reused the clamp as it was in good shape.

You're almost there at this point!

- Slide your new clamps onto the ends of the three hoses (two original hoses towards the firewall and the new hose coming off the engine). Orient the screws so that you can easily access them when you need to do this again in the future.
- Insert the new y connector (part number 84757) into the three parts of the heater hose. The two hoses at the "top" of the y are a little bit shorter, but there's still lots of play, and you've compensated for that by making the hose at the bottom of the y a little bit longer. I don't know if it matters, but we oriented the "branch" of the y upward so that it was in the same direction as the original connector. Be sure the hoses are snug on the new y connector.
- Adjust your clamps and tighten them down.

That's it! We added a bit more coolant mixture to the radiator, checked for leaks, and were done.

Honest to goodness, this was about the easiest job I've done on a car. It's always a bit scary when you start cutting hoses and doing things different than the book, but this was not hard at all, and the fix works like a charm.

Save yourself $340 and do this job yourself. You'll be glad you did.

 

I will be doing this today. What a crappy design... this should be a recall.

 

A couple of months ago, I replaced my water pump -- as well as the upper and lower radiator hoses, metal inlet pipe, thermostat, and radiator cap. The water pump had failed and I had all the parts on hand since I had been planning an overhaul for awhile.

I had the same problems a lot of people are experiencing.

1. (I assume) the heat from the crossover pipe had practically melted the rubber hose end to the thermostat housing. I literally cut the bulk of the hose off and held the housing with pliers in a flame to burn off the remaining rubber.

2. The thermostat from the factor was peened in place -- I had to pop it out, but then there was a notch that was NOT found in the replacement stat. I had to use a grinder to make a small similar notch in my new thermostat so that it would fit flush in the housing.

3. After that, the gasket was not a problem at all. But honestly, it took almost as long to prep and replace the t-stat and housing because of the aforementioned issues as it did to do the whole rest of the job.