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Just pulled into a park about 70 miles from home and plan to be here for a few days. I noticed a leak the looks like coolant. It is coming from one of the four cut off valves on the left side of the engine. Are these heater, aqua hot,etc. valves and can I cut them off without any major problem? As soon as the engine cools off I will make sure that the hose clamps are tight. It looks like it is coming from the 3rd one down. As I said I am only 70 miles from home and would like to make it home and do the fix.
These are the valves that supply hot engine coolant to the front dash heater and to the aqua hot loop that uses engine heat to heat water.
I had the same issue last year and Newell looked at it and said to just turn the valve a little bit to find the "sweet spot" where it won't leak. It hasn't leaked since.
Chappell,
Here is the label that is next to mine. The 3rd one down on mine is the "to: front heater". If you can't get it from leaking by how Forest described and just shut it off, I would also shut off the bottom valve too. That way you have shut off the feed and return line from the front heater.
Thanks to you both. It is a small leak and tomorrow I will just cut them off. When I get home will get under the coach and check the hoses. Has anyone replaced the hoses? That will be quiet a job all the way to the heater and Aqua Hot. But let us not forget these hoses are 15 years old if they have not been replaced.
one of mine onlyleaks when it is shut off. they are like the little valves under your sinks. when you close them they start to leak. the packing dries up

tom
Ok I understand that. But these hoses can't last forever. Has anyone replace the hoses. It is good that if the hose starts leaking we can cut them off and keep going. So far everyone has said it is the cut offs which I am going to check tomorrow, but if it happens to be a bad hose I would think it is a difficult job to replace any of them. Especially the heater hose.
Usually when the handle starts leaking, like under the sink, I open it about half way and tighten the nut. Most of the time that stops the leak for me.
I want the thank everyone for their reply to this. I have learned a bit more and hope others have too about these complicated machines.
The hoses are 45 feet long and VERY expensive and so are new fittings and the mono block , so a rebuild may be more cost effective where it is leaking and the rest is your call....
On my 77 coach I had an instance when I shut off the supply valve but left the return side valve open. The supply side valve dripped from around the stem when it had never leaked a drop previously. When I re-opened it later it stopped leaking altogether. I tried tightening the nut around the stem but it wouldn't budge. I tried loosening it and found an odd packing under it that only sealed when the valve was completely open so that a ring on the stem rose up against that packing. I don't know if the valves on that coach were unique or common to many coaches.

If I closed both valves so that there was no pressure in the loop neither valve leaked.
I've considered going to electric heat only for the dash/defroster. I rarely need heat there so wouldn't mind running the generator since I will probably be running it for coach heat anyhow. Thoughts???
Tomorrow I will have a good look at the valves. Will probably turn them off and when I get home lift the coach and then decide what to do. It is hard to work on something like this on the road when you have other options. When I first posted this problem I figured I was the only one that ever had it. Thanks for all your help.
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