Well okay then, the lower fluid return hose on mu 05 CRV decided it was time to start leaking pinkish around the OEM hose clamp. Those clamps tend to dig into the rubber hose a bit because of there less than great design. Although with 19 years on the clock and 100K miles, I reckon that clamp/hose combination has maintained the seal rather well. Bought a new OEM rubber hose along with the OEM reservoir tank and the other two rubber hoses that connect to it. So, i dug into it and swapped out all those pieces, but since the pressure line looked okay, I left that one alone. After about 3 hours and a good bit of mess, it was all done. Bleeding was easy and all seems to work as designed. This is a DIY task that everyone with a garage can do.

 

Actually the clamps do not shrink but the hose will swell after several years. That's what happened.

 

Sure, I can agree that's part of the equation, combined with the notion that the clamps are MANUALLY tightened every so often by all the previous owners who believe that a little tighter on all the adjustable engine tube clamps is a good thing. Each twist of that adjusting screw digs in and compresses just a bit more each time.

 

Who owned it before? Do you go around every now and then tightening up all the clamps. Who does that?
The hose swelled as they all do.

 

Yea, occasionally I do just that. Oddly enough, I check the torque of the nuts as well. I have a history in naval aviation maintenance, where the clamps and the nuts on aircraft tend to vibrate loose. Imagine that....clamps and nuts loosing their torque due to vibration. Ground vehicles do it as well.