Hey guys, the top tank on our forester just gave out.
Any of you guys know a quick fix to seal it up enough to nurse it home? (About 10 minutes drive)
I've got a hardware store only a few minutes walk from where we are, not much else is open or around at the moment.
Cheers guys
Gave out how? Cracked? What's the top tank made of?
Sorry mate, should have thrown in more detail.
It's a plastic top tank, it's got a small split/crack.
I'm thinking roughing it up and using a kneadable quick set epoxy of some description might do the trick.
This is where metal radiators win , it'd already be soldered and I'd be heading home stress free.
Leave the cap off and fill it up, drive slowly and watch the temp.
Stop and refill as needed.
You can 'weld' plastic tanks with a soldering iron and a zip tie to act like a mig wire. Works on lemons cars.
Cheers guys.
Will nurse it home with a loose cap and water on hand.
I managed to find some kneadabke metal epoxy wich I've had success with in the past.
I'll keep the cable tie plastic welding in mind, but couldn't today, way to windy out here.
Time to limp her home.
In cool weather you can drive quite a while with a loose cap and a bad upper tank. They aren't very repairable when the top gives out like that.
Got it home, lucky it wasn't an overly hot day, but I'll have to wait till it cools down to recheck and see if any damage has been done.
I hear what your saying yugo, this was one of the worst plastic tank failures ive had not involving an accident. Crack ended up being nearly 4 inches long and not far above the tank crimp, a real prick of a blow out....
We took it out for a drive to try and get it to leak, it has been using a fairly small amount of water and previous owner was sus on the head gasket.
I had my suspicions that the radiator may have had a small leak on one of the corners of the upper tank gasket, if I couldn't find the leak after today's little drive I was going to buy a new pressure tester and try finding it that way...
For the record, the radiator blew diagonally opposite to where I'd been looking. The tank looked in pretty fair condition. but being a calsonic, I'm pretty sure it was the original radiator and 13 years isn't a bad run.
With a bit of luck, there'll be no harm done and I'll get out of this for the cost of a radiator as opposed to doing head gaskets like I'd initially been expecting when we purchased it.
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