2001 Suburban 2500 with rear air. 130k miles

I've been losing coolant rapidly lately and the warning light comes on daily even as I replace whats lost. I've noticed a puddle at the right rear of the vehicle and see that there are coolant hoses in the general area of the puddle.

Its hard to see where its coming from, its not obvious if its one of the hoses.

Is there a heater core in the rear that could be leaking? Do these hoses leak with age?

Any ideas?

 

Something tells me you already kinda know that answer... if you have the rear air you also have rear heat...and it sounds like that rear coolant line is leaking...
You may be able to temporarily by-pass the lines up near the engine until you can get the time to troubleshoot and repair it or wait till the weather is better for getting under the vehicle....

 

Update.

The leak at the rear wasnt consistant so I did some checks on the engine.

Tested the coolant for Carbon, passed.

Pressure tested the coolant system, passed.

Tried a tracer dye, turned off all the lights and used the light in the UV kit and found the dye leaking at the rear. Which confirmed my earlier thoughts.

Felt around the hose with the most dye on it and found my issue.

See pics.

Next going to research replacing this hose. Any advice, is it one long hose from the front to the rear?

 

Is it the hose or the pipe that's leaking?

 

It's the metal pipe. The one with the rust on it in the picture. You can see the sharp piece of metal behind it that it rubbed on causing the cut in the pipe you can see in the picture I took with a mirror.

Local auto parts store didn't have this pipe. Gonna hit the dealership today.

 

That's what I thought. Then is that just a protective covering on the straight portion or is it hose? If hose, wonder why no clamp. If not hose, then it's probably an assembly that you have to get from dealer parts. If the exposed pipe is just a short piece connecting the hose, then it's also probably available thru parts. Or salvage yard.

 

That rubber piece is just a sleeve. It's one long metal pipe. Would have been great if that protective piece extended a little farther!

Went to the dealership and guess what, this hose assembly has been discontinued. Great! Looks like I'll be cutting the metal pipe and clamping in a section of rubber hose. At least it's a cheap fix!

 

And probably last a helluva lot longer than the original, especially if you slit a piece of hose and cover that flange that wore the hole in the pipe in the first place.