[D Man]

That hoes broke on my 98 Duratec also. it happened the hour I was going to put it up for the winter. I just got back from washing it for the final time that year. I parked it in it's spot at my house, and I was cleaning out the inside of the car (it was still running) and I satrted to smell coolant but thought nothing of it. Then I noticeed my loe coolant loight was on, when I was cleaning the dashboard. So I went to check under the hood ( it was dark out) and for some reason it felt weird under my feet, so I looked down with the flash light and notice I'm standing in a puddle of coolant. I shut the car off and the next day I found the broken house. Here's what mine looked like whe I took it out. I don't even know how it was able to flow coolant for as long as it did. Cause I know the kind of deteration doesn't happin over night.
My new one was about $150 and change and the guy at the delarship said he gave me a discount too. It is TOUGH to install that hose. The old one is easy to take out casue it will bend in the rust spots but the new one took me about 15-20 min to finangle it in their.
Good Luck

 

[D Man]

Here's the old one and new one together. It cost alot but I think it's best to put the OEM hose back in.
Even though right now I'm currently bypassing my heatercore with a cheap rubber hose cause I don't wanna replace a busted heatercore line, and yes it's a metal-rubber line just like these, but smaller

 

[D Man]

And here's the new one on. Look nice. But you should be alittle worried about rust getting into the coolant system. I had mine flushed when I put everthing back together.

 

[D Man]

I thought about stripping off the paint and repainting it with some rustoleum or something like that. But I never did. Not sure if it would have helped. Maybe if you get it powdercoated, that might last a long time. As long as it doesn't rust from the inside-out. But once again, it'll cost you.