Third Expansion Tank in three months

[mightysquirrel]

For those who've had to do it, the replacement of the coolant expansion tank is a real treat of a job.

It's one that really wants you to have to proper tool for the clamps on the hoses unless you like tearing your hands up and spending countless hours trying to do the job the wrong way.

It was a bit of work the first time you try it, but I did have the advantage of having the tool to uncompress the hose clamp and was easily able to loosen the hose. I went in right from the top, I didn't even contemplate jacking the car. From the passenger side I was able to reach down and get the tool on the clamp by snaking it through from the opposite (driver's) side of the car.

The first time I did the tank on our 2002 it only took about 1 hour and 40 minutes. Too bad that tank only lasted a week before it failed. That time it failed in a completely different place than the original, but it failed, spraying coolant all over the interior of the trunk.

So we talked to the shop and they agreed that that was Bull$h!t and they ordered up another tank for us at no charge. So the second time around I was able to get the tank in in a mere 45 minutes. The second time was a breeze as I knew all the proper contortions and had the cracked one out of the car 10 minutes after draining the thing. A few minutes later I was topping up the tank, pulling the bleed valve up and running the heat up to wow to bleed off the system.

I got the system fully bled and all was dandy. Car ran like a top, no leaks, everything was fine.

So it's been about 5 weeks and all was well until...

Last night after coming home from dinner my wife looks down under the rear passenger wheel and sure enough, there's that familiar puddle under the wheel. **** IT! I put my hand into the trunk and didn't have to go far before I felt the dampness. The stench of ethylene glycol was enough to choke a horse.

So we'll be calling up the parts desk again on Monday to get another (yes count 'em... one.. two.. three) tank. The third in just 2 months.

I'm actually starting to get pretty pissed off here. I'm a **** careful mechanic. I use a torque wrench on everything and I have been very gentle with the installation of these tanks. They just keep failing. There's no logical reason for it. It's obviously a really bad design and they've superseded the part enough times to make it clear that they have some serious problems with them failing.

Sure we drive the car harder than most, but we don't abuse it or bounce it off curbs. That's why we have Porsche's. If I wasn't driving the ******************** out of my cars I'd buy something else, but these things are designed (and intended) to be driven like this. I'm a former racer and my wife spent countless weekends at the track with me tearing engines apart, so we're no strangers to working on cars.

So I'm just curious, has anyone else seen this sort of issue with these &%$)@#! expansion tanks?

m