What is this hose on my 08 Grand Caravan?

Factual Questions
1

On my 08 Grand Caravan, I have a leaking hose. I can’t say for sure what it is, but, I think it is a heater hose…of sorts. My upper radiator goes into some kind of complex that may be the thermostat…from this unit, a y pipe goes out and two hoses from the y pipe go into the firewall. That’s all I know, except the hose where it attaches to the y pipe is leaking, which is why I started checking it.
Can anybody here help?
The engine is a 3.3.

Thanks,
hh

2

If it goes through the firewall, it goes to the heater core which heats the interior of the car. There’s probably another hose coming right back out of the firewall in the same area. I’m not sure what the ‘complex’ you speak of is, but I doubt it’s the t-stat. I’ve only changed one, but I recall it being mounted more or less right on the block (and towards the bottom. Not inline with a hose. Can you take a picture. Or rather, let us know what exactly you’re trying to figure out. Are you just looking for parts names so you know what you’re getting into to fix this?

Assuming it’s just a heater hose (is the fluid leaking the same color as the fluid in your radiator). My suggestion would be that you just cut out the bad suggestion and splice the remaining part back together with a repair kit.
http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_Heater-Hose-Repair-Kit-Victor_6010156-P_N3056_A|GRP2014____

3

Basically, this.
I will go out and see if I can come up with a better description of my ‘complex.’
Thanks!

hh

4

Update:
I went out and rechecked: Here’s the layout.
The upper radiator tube goes into some kind of (aluminum?) housing, that looks like the ‘beginning’ of a thermostat housing (pretty idiotic description, I admit) that has the, uh, plastic thing that used to be a distributor cap in older vehicles, immediately above it. I thought it was part of it, but, obviously it can’t be. So, from the housing (kind of rectangular) extends the plastic y pipe/tube. The two hoses connect to this. A further inspection reveals that the lower of the hoses goes into the firewall, while the other one goes back to the firewall, but goes into a metal tube that goes under the vehicle.

Can this help any?

Thanks,
hh

5

P.M. me your e-mail and I’ll send you the diagram from the parts catalog.
I work for a Chrysler dealer.

6

It’s a heater hose. It’s usually most helpful to describe heater hoses by what they connect to on each end. In this case, it sounds like it goes from the thermostat housing to either the heater core or a pipe.

There are many different places that thermostats can be mounted on engines. Decades ago there was a typical location, but not these days.

7

Yeah, I thought about that after I said it which is why I backed up and mentioned that I only ever changed a t-stat on one vehicle (95 Bronco), so there was really no reason for me to generalize.