A/C Hose failure - possible preemptive strike?

["Matt Cleland" <cleland@stlnet.com>]

I've been reading a lot of your notes about the A/C hose that rubs on the
fan cowling and fails, and thought of a possible solution.  On my 98 GLX,
there is a rubber donut that surrounds the hose at that location, which
looks like it was added to keep the hose from rubbing, or delay failure til
the warranty is over ;-(.  Anyway, the rubber donut is made of fairly soft
rubber, and is already being cut into by the fan cowling.  My thought was to
get a steel hose clamp and put it around the donut.  This would basically
create a "steel belted donut" which would not be hurt by the fan cowling.

Does this sound like a good mod?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matt Cleland					cleland@stlnet.com
98 Jetta GLX
Black/Biber