Stupid plastic coolant bottle

subytech · Post by **subytech** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:37 am

First of all, Hi to all, I'm new to this forum and just picked up my 92 legacy turbo mt 3 weeks ago, WOW i liked subys before but i dont think i'll ever own any other kind of car now lol.

My question is I have a crack in the ubiquitous plastic coolant bottle on the top of my engine, does anyone know of a stronger possibly aluminum or steel aftermarket bottle/can, maby for a rex or older turbo impreza that would work. My cost on a new one is $90 customer pay its $160 (i work at a suby delership) and if i'm going to spend that much I might as well spend extra and get one that I wont have to worry so much about in the future.

Bheinen74 · Post by **Bheinen74** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 4:48 am

they can be repaired with some brass fittings/nipples from a hardware store, and some good epoxy / JB Weld. and a drill bit to hone out the hole where you need to insert the brass fitting.

Subaru should have molded those tanks in bright orange with a million warning stickers on them to do not touch the tank.

try to repair it/ and try not to break any more of the nipples off. Many of us have done the repair, with very good results.
cost, about 5 bucks to fix.

if money is no problem get one new.

Richard · Post by **Richard** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 2:15 am

This is what I did with my last one and it worked quite nice. I went to the hardware store and got brass fittings to replace the ones that cracked off. I made the holes just big enough to securely hold the fittings and I put a little bead of epoxy around them to seal them.

Everyone's done this, right? Usually fails after a month or two. Here's what I did better.

I took masking tape and went around the entire perimeter of the backside building a neat little wall (about 3/8 of an inch tall). Then I put it on it's side so that the "bowl" I created was facing up. I then filled in the bowl with high-temp epoxy (Devcon 454 I think). I let that shit sit for two days, peeled off the tape, and stuck it in my car. Never had a problem again. It added a little bulk and a little weight, but for about 20 bucks I cured my problem forever. Well, until I retired it at least. I now have a kickass spare though.

P.S. - I followed all recommended epoxy procedures like having the right mixture, the right environmental conditions, a clean and scored surface, and enough curing time. I know we're all in a hurry these days, but some things need time to be done right.

Hope this helps someone.

ej22t · Post by **ej22t** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 11:53 pm

Get a WRX matel coolant tank, relocate it and you will trouble free for the rest of your life!

Good luck!

Ben

subytech · Post by **subytech** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 12:23 am

Do the WRX tanks have all the right fittings?

Bheinen74 · Post by **Bheinen74** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 12:41 am

ej22t wrote:Get a WRX matel coolant tank, relocate it and you will trouble free for the rest of your life!

Good Luck!
Ben

we're gonna need more than luck in finding one of these. anyone got a line on these?

kleinkid · Post by **kleinkid** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 1:34 am

I bought this tank assy-water Subaru part number 21132AA131, for a WRX, and it is not metal. It is some sort of plastic, but looks much more stout than the Legacy SS one. It is a little smaller and has the same number of nipples as the Legacy one. $76.10 from www.subarugenuineparts.com Because it is smaller, I have not yet decided to mount it near the charcol cannister/ABS unit or near where the stock one is, but out of the way of a WRX TMIC.

Bheinen74 · Post by **Bheinen74** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 1:38 am

paint in warning orange color, and put
"Do not breathe on or touch" stickers on it.

subytech · Post by **subytech** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 3:49 am

well it doesent matter anyway, i just took the bottle off to JB weld it with some new fittings and found a large crack running the entire lenght of the bottle on the back side! I hope i can find a spair WRX tank at work and make it work!

You can see that the previous owner had tryed to fix an erlier problem, where i originally thought the leak was comming from. Oh well good time to replace my stuck open T-stat, it is getting cold around here after all.

dzx · Post by **dzx** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 6:42 am

I threaded the hole and used silicone to seal it. Epoxy was getting to be a pain for me and always leaking.

subytech · Post by **subytech** » Fri Oct 20, 2006 2:42 pm

I have a fealing thats what the previous owners tryied with the fitting above but made the hole to small, it looks like the fitting caused the stress crack you see.

subytech · Post by **subytech** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 6:07 am

well orderd a new WRX metal tank and my T-stat on friday $70 for the tank (my cost) to bad it wont be here until thursday and i have to ride the Ninja until then, and its supposed to start raining on tuesday, i hate riding in the rain!

subytech · Post by **subytech** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 2:49 am

Got the tank yesterday, dissapointed though, it was the "new" style which unfortunatly meants that its plastic as well. Also replaced the T-stat, as i guessed it was stuck about 3/4 of an inch open!

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Stupid plastic coolant bottle

Stupid plastic coolant bottle