I was thinking about putting on new radiator hoses
on my 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix GT regular 3800.
I thought with 84k miles its probably a good time
before winter.
So I should probably replace the coolant.
Any tips or instructions about doing this job?

Replacing the upper and lower hoses is super easy with some channel locks, vise grips, or better yet the cool little hose clamp tool but now is the perfect time to flush out the dexcool and put something like the Prestone yellow in. Just make sure that you flush it very very thoroughly and use distilled water if you buy coolant that isn't 50/50 premixed. Also, went everything is filled back up, make sure you bleed all the air out of the system by making sure that a solid stream of coolant comes out of the bleed valve on the thermostat housing.

Document ID: 793614 for lower
Document ID: 839548 for upper. Links to coolant draining and filling are also in those documents. To drain coolant though, I could just remove the lower hose and not even touch the lower drain plug since it's plastic and usually like to break. To flush it you could get one of those "kits" to run a garden hose through and flush everything out or if you have crappy well water like myself, I just bought a ton of distilled water, filled up the system, ran the car with heat on high till operating temp was reached, then let the engine cool a little, drained it all out, filled with distilled water again and repeated. Then after a couple cycles of that, I added Prestone Yellow, ran the engine to temp, topped off, check the freeze point with one of those nifty gauges and called it a day.

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Dubs:00 VW GTI VR6, Low and Slow 91 VW GTI 8v, Shave the Bay!! 91 VW Cabriolet 8v, bitch Basket
GP's:04 GP GT, Past now G-Ma's Girlfriend's 97 GP GT, "Project Pink Power"

Should I stick with Dex Cool or switch to Prestone Yellow???

Would it do any damage either way?????

Whats the best way to go????

How many gallons????

get rid of dex-cool

any ethylene glychal coolant would work (most aftermarket coolent is ethylene glychal) it is all the same just diffrent color die added to it the cooling system holds about 2 gallons if you get a 50/50 mix then get 2 gallons if you get a concentraite (it's cheaper) get 1 gallon and put in a gallon of water form your gardon hose

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92 LeBaron Convert: Turbo 3L 97 Grand Prix GT 4dr "Frankenstein": L67 4t65 swap
97 Grand Marquis: Summer DD 99 Grand Prix GTP: Top Swap Beater

IIRC its 11 quarts, so that would be a little over 2 gallns

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DIY intake-HV3-3" catless dp-180 tsat-DIY shift kit-murphy custom tune

2 gallons have always worked int he past. if i was under i just added water to it

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92 LeBaron Convert: Turbo 3L 97 Grand Prix GT 4dr "Frankenstein": L67 4t65 swap
97 Grand Marquis: Summer DD 99 Grand Prix GTP: Top Swap Beater

Is there a way to tell if the hoses are bad??
They are 9 years old.
Is it better safe than sorry???

If they don't feel soft, look dryrotted or deteriorated from oil damage, aren't bulging, and don't have any visible cuts, nicks, scratches, etc, they should be fine. It's an easy enough job to replace both of them though so if you want the piece of mind, go ahead. The upper hose on my girlfriends 97 finally ruptured a couple months ago but that was with 14 years and 160k miles of time spent on the car.

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Dubs:00 VW GTI VR6, Low and Slow 91 VW GTI 8v, Shave the Bay!! 91 VW Cabriolet 8v, bitch Basket
GP's:04 GP GT, Past now G-Ma's Girlfriend's 97 GP GT, "Project Pink Power"

My 1994 GMC truck still have a hoses (it has a date on it) so I guess it should be fine lol

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Just don't let Matt touch your radiator hoses that are in good shape. Mine let go on the STi about an hour after Matt looked at it and tought to himself "this hose is in good shape, not spongy at all."

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'05 WRX STi - COBB Stage 2|Invidia DP|3" Borla XR-1|Coilovers|Camber Plates|Swaybars|Endlinks|Bushings|Braces|Anti Lift Kit|DBA4000s|SS lines|
Sold: 06 Cobalt SS/SC, 99 GTP 245WHP/326 Ft-lbs, 06 R6

Well how was I supposed to know that it would hit the fan and spray all over the place

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Dubs:00 VW GTI VR6, Low and Slow 91 VW GTI 8v, Shave the Bay!! 91 VW Cabriolet 8v, bitch Basket
GP's:04 GP GT, Past now G-Ma's Girlfriend's 97 GP GT, "Project Pink Power"

I don't know but I wish you would have told me!

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'05 WRX STi - COBB Stage 2|Invidia DP|3" Borla XR-1|Coilovers|Camber Plates|Swaybars|Endlinks|Bushings|Braces|Anti Lift Kit|DBA4000s|SS lines|
Sold: 06 Cobalt SS/SC, 99 GTP 245WHP/326 Ft-lbs, 06 R6

Or, better yet, don't replace your hoses and when they do break just have Matt fix them for your =P he seems to fix everyone elses car anyway. And he will work for MKII parts haha

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Gt2256v, FMIC, Port & Polish Head, Stage 2 Colt Cam. Rosten Rods, PD150 Pistons, Oil Cooler, Fuel Cooler, Diablo W/M kit, Built 5 speed with LSD
I work on enough GP's to know I don't want to own one =P

The OEM hoses they've made for the last 20ish years are heavy on silicone and other reliable compounds, instead of the old rubber hoses that dried up and cracked. If the hoses arent cracked or showing any aging, they will probably be fine for years to come.

I replaced the radiator in my Impala this summer and picked up new hoses from Advance Auto. Even with 190k, my original hoses were in great shape, no cracks or anything and still very flexible. The newer hoses looked like they were regular hard reinforced rubber, which would eventually dry and crack, so I kept the originals and returned the new ones.

my 97 has original hoses
and plug wires

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Modern hoses and still get "spongy" and expand with raising temps/pressure and either blow out or run against things they shouldn't rub against and start leaking.

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'05 WRX STi - COBB Stage 2|Invidia DP|3" Borla XR-1|Coilovers|Camber Plates|Swaybars|Endlinks|Bushings|Braces|Anti Lift Kit|DBA4000s|SS lines|
Sold: 06 Cobalt SS/SC, 99 GTP 245WHP/326 Ft-lbs, 06 R6