Has anyone changed their coolant bottle and know hot to release it from the mounting tabs?

 

Do a search, this topic has been discussed at length before!

 

.... in multiple volumes!

Do a dearch on tank or expansion or coolant leak.

 

Go over to RennTech and there's a picture and text write-up on it. It may even be cross referenced here on Rennlist. If you have to buy a tank...I would heartily suggest you order from Sunset...they have the best price at $168 last time I checked. Good folks there. Also change your coolant cap while you're at it.

 

Thanks Chuck, RennTech had the clue I was looking for. My car is an 02 and it's not quite as straightforward to do as the early cars. The key was to remove the motor mounts and lower the motor.

I was a little pissed that this wasn't covered under my certified pre-owned warranty -- obviously a manufacturing problem because of how common the failure is. I told the stealer forget it, and fixed it out of spite. They tried to explain why I couldn't do it myself...jerks...

3 hours later, good as new.

 

Darren: Glad you found what you needed....just be careful you don't break off the sensor on the bottom of the tank. I bought an extra one when I did mine just in case....as it turned out I didn't need it , but it was good to have around for in case. I guess this is such a common failure that they exclude it from CPO?? I didn't know it was an exculsionary item. I can't imagine a dealer talking you into doing it yourself.....but look at it this way...you saved the money for the repair...

 

Yeah it's a frustrating situation -- the new car warranty covers everything end to end EXCEPT some things, brake pads, whatever. The certified pre-owned ONLY covers certain part numbers -- about 14 pages of them that you can get from the dealership. I don't understand why some things are on there and some aren't, it makes no sense to me.

I put everything back together and started bleeding the system, and it's still doing what it was doing before -- leaking all of the coolant out, even with the new bottle. It looks like that wasn't the problem after all and they misdiagnosed it. If I had them fix it, of course they would say "the bottle was bad, but this other thing was bad too".

It's very annoying that I have to either diagnose it myself and then find out whether the broken part is covered, or take it to the dealership only to find out that if the part isn't covered, that I need to pay them for the diagnosis. This totally defeats the purpose of having a warranty in my opinion.

 

Were you able to see where the coolant was coming from? Is it back in the engine compartment or perhaps forward in the radiators? I'm really sorry you're having such a time with this, but this sounds like a hose or fitting somewhere...Were you able to save off the coolant? I used the large aluminum turkey pans...several of them so you push one out of the way and continue catching the runoff...then you can bend them and pour the coolant back into the system....

 

It's difficult to see, not much room in there. I've just been using water until I get it working right, so no big deal with it leaking. You're probably right that it's a hose...

 

The 02 is different than previous models. The tabs are like |_| |_| |_| on the bracket and tank. You have to slide the tank toward the engine about 3/4" to release tha tabs. The it comes straight down. I had to lower my engine about 3 or 4 inches to make the job possible and disconnect the left fuel rail, pull the injectors to get another 1/4" of working room. BTW I paid $112.25 online. Can't say where cause they're not a sponsor.