Damn new rubbish

[GTVeloce]

Ok, so my old coolant reservoir (75) had a hair-line crack in the top that old showed up when things got really hot. Being pro-active I decided to replace it maybe two or three months ago with a brand new one (from IAP from memory). The other day I came back to my car to find the hideous green puddle lurking underneath! Upon inspection, my new bottle has sprung a leak from the top, at the 'dimple' where the top and bottom are joined in the middle.

I have replaced the old bottle so that I can at least drive my car but am wondering if anyone has had success repairing theirs? Given it is the top and a depression at that, I am guessing the right stuff poured in might do the job. Any ideas what to use? Or can you reset this type of plastic (thermoplastic).

Thanks

[shiny_car]

When did you buy it (as opposed to fitting it 2-3 months ago)? You are clearly using the correct 0.7 bar pressure cap, so if the tank is faulty, they should cover it by warranty. Send them a photo and purchase details, and hopefully they'll send you a new one.

If it's leaking from that 'hole', there's probably many compounds you could seal it with, so it may depend what you have at hand. I would use some fibreglass resin mixed with Q-Cel, only because I have that stuff already. Otherwise, try an epoxy like a Selleys Araldite or Permatex product, from Bunnings or Supercheap; one that suits plastics and is high temp resistant..

[colcol]

You could repair it with Araldite, and it would most likely work,.... but you would be left with a big pile of epoxy on your coolant tank looking awfull, or you could get a fine hot soldering iron and remelt the plastic that has split, so the repair is almost invisible, if you need a bit of filler plastic, just scrape a bit off from one of the joins, with 33's you cannot buy coolant tanks new, so you fix up the old ones, Colin.

[Darryl]

Aside from the very important aesthetic concerns - "normal" epoxy (ie araldite) has quite spectacular loss of strength with heat (it recovers when cooled, just to trick you...) so it may not be the best purely functional solution either. JB weld seems to be the only easy to find epoxy type product that retains reasonable strength when hot but I would be interested to hear what else anyone knows of and where to get it (I can find stuff in 3M catalogs that I can't seem to buy in this country - happy to learn I'm wrong about that too...).

[colcol]

One of my many coolant tanks are fixed with JB Weld, there are about 3 different types of JB Weld, so get the right one, if the hole is at the bottom, then no problem, if where you can see it, it will look a bit ugly, i reckon JB Weld is better than Araldite, as it doesn't run everywhere, also JB is good for fixing broken 147 & 156 glove boxes, AA Engineering supplies in Bayswater, about 2 kilometers from Monza Motors sell JB Weld, or you can buy it off Ebay, Colin.

[Al Campbell]

I concur on not to use "normal" epoxies. Yes they do loose strength with heat, araldite is one of the lower temperature softeners'. Have used it as a form of sealant/loctite on boats under screws. Touch a soldering iron to the head for a little while softens the epoxy, then unscrew.

[MD]

Ah all this high tech talk..what's wrong with an old milk bottle and a cork stopper? Works well on my ride-on mower real good.   

[colcol]

If it will take 8 lbs of pressure, a screw in pressure cap, screw in coolant level checker and all the plumbing that it has with it, i say go for it, what would you recomend, 1 or 2 litre, milk or orange juice bottle?, Colin.

[MD]

I'd go for the clear glass one that used to have the shiny aluminium seal on it. Bit of coat hanger wire off the radio aerial should make a fire proof hanger for it nicely too.

or if you didn't really want to join the shitbox rally crew, you might just go an get a stainless one made for the job. End of splits . Lifetime job.

[Beatle]

GTVeloce,  Consider taking the old tank to a motorcycle plastic welder.  They may be able to run a new seam all along the original join.