VanillaThrilla

So... a friend of mine went to Advance Auto to get a new battery installed, and the person installing it apparently broke a fragile plastic "valve" that's underneath the intake tube. I'm not sure what exactly it does, or what it's called, but the employee told her that it had something to do with regulating the coolant. The hose that the component attaches to seems to connect on one end to the radiator, and upon the drive home, the coolant essentially burst and went everywhere. She was close to home, and was able to coast to the house without doing any further damage. I've looked over it, and don't think it should be a problem to fix it myself, but I don't know wtf it is. Personally, I'd hold Advance Auto liable, but they don't want to make it into a bigger issue than they feel it needs to be.

So, based on my poor description, is anyone familiar with what this is? I've Googled, and since I don't really know what it is or what it does, I've come up pretty empty handed. Need to find out what it is ASAP so that I can estimate a cost for the part.

In the spoiler, there's a very large picture that I found on Google that will hopefully allow me to show you at the very least where I'm looking at.

nftuatn

http://www.partswebsite.com/mazdawho...searchall=test

nftuatn

http://www.partswebsite.com/mazdawho...40&catid=10011

ChokolAwt

what kind of mazda? year?

where did the coolant burst from? and can you circle that "clamp" in the picture?

VanillaThrilla

Thanks. I found a few shitty schematics but none are helping me very much. Reading schematics are often like reading in German to me.

It's a Mazda 6. I think it's a 2005. First gen 6, and it's the V6. I have no idea where the coolant burst from, but I can see that the little plastic "t" in the hose is broken and I'm assuming that's where it came from. I just called the Advance Auto that they dealt with and the guy doesn't know much about what it is. They seem to think it's a coincidence that it busted and say it's a common thing that fails, but they can't tell me what it is, what it does, or what it's called.

Computer_Nerd

"Coolant T connector". Might want to just get it from a stealership in the morning to make sure it's the right one.

VanillaThrilla

Everything looks a little different in that picture, but the line that's connected to the big hose that runs to the radiator (the smaller one tied onto the bigger one) that goes nowhere on one end is attached to the "T" on the other end. That's where it broke. I can't quite find it in the picture you posted. I'll upload a picture and a video momentarily.

VanillaThrilla

Not a very good picture, but it's pouring here. I have a video that I'm transferring and will upload ASAP.

For reference, in the picture the battery is on the right, and obviously the throttle body is to the top left. Disconnected the airbox from the throttle body to make room to see with the camera.

VanillaThrilla

Video reference

Computer_Nerd

It's the upper heater hose with t fitting.

http://www.mazdaparts.org/mazda-6-heater-hose.html