MX5 Mania Hose Kit any good?

[Rovy]

One of my small dia water split and fell apart Wednesday night on the NA. Put an order in for the full set from Mania Thursday morning and they arrived Friday morning. Need to use the car Sat afternoon so the timing was perfect.
Tried this afternoon to get the smaller hose off. So hard to do. Any way I get them all on tomorrow morning and report back on how the clips hold.

Cheers

[hks_kansei]

if the hose is already stuffed just cut it off with a razor blade.

No point trying to remove it intact if it's already flocked.

[wedge_A]

One of my small dia water split and fell apart Wednesday night on the NA. Put an order in for the full set from Mania Thursday morning and they arrived Friday morning. Need to use the car Sat afternoon so the timing was perfect.
Tried this afternoon to get the smaller hose off. So hard to do. Any way I get them all on tomorrow morning and report back on how the clips hold.

Cheers

Yeah let us all know how they fit with the standard clamps! I'm just a bit worried by people saying that the regular clamps may not hold so well. I assume the mania kit doesn't come with new clamps?

[wedge_A]

well I have to say the OEM is pretty good.
I replaced all my hoses after 24 years. One, kind of started leaking right at the end so I shortened it. But then others started leaking as well shortly after. I got to the stage where I replaced everything.
I know Money can be tight. But I can't see anything wrong with the silicone hoses. Especially if you want under-bonnet bling. While I'm endorsing OEM I have to say Ive not heard anything terrible about the silicone hoses.

If you do decide to change everything look at it as preventative maintenance. That used to be my motto. Until I got tired of cars in general. I Ignored Christine for a good 5-6 years and for some years, reaped the benefit of this until everything started to go wrong.

Even if you decide to change to silicone and if they prove to be not as good as OEM, You will still get years of trouble free motoring as far as your cooling system goes.

Yeah my mechanic suggested that all the hoses need replacing. With the rubber hoses he can get plus labor it's like $600+! So $120 for the mania kit and fitting it myself is a serious saving. I'm not expecting them to last 20 years, I don't anticipate owning the car that long (though how could I part with it!)

[Nevyn72]

Just a quick note on these hoses for the NB8a/b/c, the larger 4 hoses fit, the small hoses (off the thermostat housing to the throttle body, oil cooler, etc.) don't.
The internal diameter is way too small.

I used them to replace the top, bottom and heater hoses and re-purposed the smaller ones as new vacuum lines.

Also, the Mania ones have branding all over them, if you want unbranded ones then you have to get what is basically the same set from API via eBay.

[wedge_A]

Just a quick note on these hoses for the NB8a/b/c, the larger 4 hoses fit, the small hoses (off the thermostat housing to the throttle body, oil cooler, etc.) don't.
The internal diameter is way too small.

I used them to replace the top, bottom and heater hoses and re-purposed the smaller ones as new vacuum lines.

Also, the Mania ones have branding all over them, if you want unbranded ones then you have to get what is basically the same set from API via eBay.

Hmm thanks for the info! Pretty odd the smaller ones don't fit!

[RedMX]

One of my small dia water split and fell apart Wednesday night on the NA. Put an order in for the full set from Mania Thursday morning and they arrived Friday morning. Need to use the car Sat afternoon so the timing was perfect.
Tried this afternoon to get the smaller hose off. So hard to do. Any way I get them all on tomorrow morning and report back on how the clips hold.

Cheers

Yeah let us all know how they fit with the standard clamps! I'm just a bit worried by people saying that the regular clamps may not hold so well. I assume the mania kit doesn't come with new clamps?

They sell the clamps as a optional extra, I got the kit + Clamps on my na6, just be wary that one of the heater hoses is moulded off the old (pre superseded part) so if you have late na6 the hose may look different to the one you may have. but it fits anyways.

I bought the mania kit because it was going to cost me 3/4 of the price just for one heater hose (genuine mazda)... so i just bought the full kit & replaced everything.

[Rovy]

All the hoses fit. But I had to get clamps for the small and heater hoses. The stock clamps easily fitted around the larger rad hoses.
The internal dia of the smaller hoses look smaller than the originals, but the original hoses are 25 years old and might be a bit stretched out by now. They all slipped on easily.
To get access I had to remove the air intake up to the throttle body and the fan.

All good now.

[Rovy]

All the hoses fit. But I had to get clamps for the small and heater hoses. The stock clamps easily fitted around the larger rad hoses.
The internal dia of the smaller hoses look smaller than the originals, but the original hoses are 25 years old and might be a bit stretched out by now. They all slipped on easily.
To get access I had to remove the air intake up to the throttle body and the fan.

All good now.

[Nevyn72]

All the hoses fit. But I had to get clamps for the small and heater hoses. The stock clamps easily fitted around the larger rad hoses.
The internal dia of the smaller hoses look smaller than the originals, but the original hoses are 25 years old and might be a bit stretched out by now. They all slipped on easily.
To get access I had to remove the air intake up to the throttle body and the fan.

This is true for the NA but not the NB which uses a larger internal diameter for the 4 smaller hoses.

I mentioned it because the OP's profile shows NB8b.

[wedge_A]

Thanks for all the great advice people! I'll let you know what i go with, and how the repair turns out.

[Cus]

Late to the party; but +1 from me for the hose kit, it's way cheaper than OEM replacement parts, the hose clamps they also sell seem to be pretty good. (definitely better than the random mish-mash of clamps my car had acquired in it's 24 years anyway)

The only issue I faced was the lower/front hose on an NA6 didn't exactly align, but it's close enough not to be a functional issue, just an OCD one.

As others have said, undo/move the old clamps and cut the old hoses if they're looking shabby, it's infinitely easier. Pulling things off that are in your way is easier than working around them too; eg: AC fan belt.

Also, the pipes going to the heater core are soft (copper?) so if you're using multi-grips to pull the old hose you'll crush the heater pipes, so don't do that....

And finally, start with the smaller hoses, they take the most amount of patience.

[Rolley]

Fitted a full kit about a fortnight ago. Getting every hose in one go made a lot of sense to me.

Only problem I had was one section of the bottom hose had a manufacturing fault that exposed the webbing through the inner lining. This let coolant wick out through both ends of the hose. Not a huge leak just one or two drops on the ground when you pulled up somewhere.
Drove me nuts trying to figure it out. I pulled the joints apart a couple of times to clean them up and ensure they were seating correctly. I also fitted 1 inch wide hose clamps with no effect.
The fault was about 2 inches in from the end of the hose so I wasn't able to get a good photo of it but this one shows the coolant was clearly leaking out through the webbing.

Called Mania at lunch on Friday, replacement hose arrived by 9am Monday. I have sent the faulty one back so they can have a look at it.

[Mr Morlock]

logic beats me, OEM or quality hoses like Mackay as mentioned earlier and at reasonable cost and why replace products that are ok- its not like aircraft maintenance. What a great ad too for the ugly purple thing- product supplied and faulty. Faulty product should not get out the door but you can bet there was no QA check. A mate just told me he had a filter that sprang a leak and his mechanic remarked how thin the metal canister was. It was detected by noticing oil leaking and if the car was on a cruise it could well have destroyed an expensive engine- bet the filter was cheap. We all do it at times buy the cheap product.

[Rolley]

Even well known brands like Ryco have quality issues. Several batches (the filter for my Nissan daily amongst them) were highlighted as defective last year and replaced if you returned the filter to Repco. There was no advertised recall it was only if you noticed and complained. The body of the filter was poorly crimped to the base plate allowing oil to seep from the join.
Quality assurance is not testing each individual part it's pulling a sample from the batch and using it as a reasonable assumption for that batch. Of course there will be individual units within a Passed batch that could be faulty, that's the joy of mass production. By your reasoning Morlock every oil filter should have already had oil run through it for testing purposes before it's sold.

When working as a mechanic I saw my fair share of OEM parts that were never fit for purpose but were just on continuous replacement loop as it was cheaper than designing it properly. A prime example was the BA Flacon bonnet cable The load required to open the bonnet was too much for the lever and as a result the cable pulled through the handle. 40 minute job to replace properly yet it stayed the same from BA1 through to FG.
Fam1 and Fam2 motors used in a lot of Holden, Nissan & Daewoo cars all run a PCV hose made of no fuel grade rubber that swells, softens and collapses every 15,000km. Sometimes chunks of it fall into the rocker cover, most of the time it just pours oil down the back of the engine and causes it to run like a pig. The hose has neve changed from the Camira and N13 Pulsar through to mid 2000's Astra's, Lanos & Nubira... Where's the QA there? Supplied faulty from the late 70's and still available with no modification to the design in 2015.

As for replacing all hoses in one go. I find it makes perfect sense. Instead of finding one leaking hose, replacing it. Going a couple of months, finding another leaking hose and replacing it. Repeat 9 times for an NA6.
Take the fact all original hoses were fitted at the same time, they have all heat cycled the same number of times and would all be the same age, within a couple of months. It stands that the material they are made from, be it rubber or silicone would have degraded at equal speed meaning replacing them all at once reduces the risk of a leak or worse, a burst and overheat.
Would you only replace one shock absorber because the other wasn't leaking? One tie rod or ball joint?
$120 for the entire set over $60 for the one hose was never a contest. A lot of the cars I see at the meets around Brisbane are running the Mania or Carbon Miata set and I have heard nothing but positive feedback on it. The suppliers are sponsors of the forum and if they were selling sub par products it would soon be highlighted.
Ajay from Mania dealt with my issue very professionally and had genuine concern there was a problem with the product. To the point he wanted the faulty hose back so he could inspect it and contact his supplier. They express posted the replacement to me also.

Logic beats me, how did you ever come to drive a car Morlock? From your comments I'm honestly surprised your not advocating we just keep breeding faster horses.