dhh3 Posted November 9, 2015 Report Share Posted November 9, 2015 This is a common issue in most modern cars. With emissions standards what they are, all vehicles run hotter than in the past. With the ambient heat from the engine and the heat from the coolant, combined with a large number of heating and cooling cycles over time, even the most robust plastics will give way eventually. Does this happen on Diesel VWs too? Just asking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bramfrank Posted November 9, 2015 Report Share Posted November 9, 2015 This is a common issue in most modern cars. With emissions standards what they are, all vehicles run hotter than in the past. With the ambient heat from the engine and the heat from the coolant, combined with a large number of heating and cooling cycles over time, even the most robust plastics will give way eventually. And you can thank the EPA for forcing even more and more stringent emissions and mileage requirements on auto manufacturers causing them to resort to making every part they can out of plastic. But the real problem is that for some unknown reason over the past 15 or so Chrysler has been putting half the bottle in the pressurised coolant loop, rather than what they used to do, which was to use the bottle solely to catch overflow - it is the pressure that kills the bottle, because under repeated heating and cooling cycles the plastic eventually becomes brittle - if it wasn't for the pressure, even as a brittle plastic bottle it wouldn't break - and if it did, the entire contents of the cooling system wouldn't be dumped on the street. So tell me, which is more environmentally friendly? Not spilling a few gallons of coolant on the ground? Or using a larger plastic bottle that requires more fitings to tie it into the vehicle's plumbing and is almost guaranteed to eventually spill toxic coolant all over the place AND is likely cause the engine to severely overheat? There is no reason why they couldn't leave the cap on the top of the radiator (or even above the thermostat, the way my motorcycle does) and go back to using the plastic bottle solely for non-pressurised overflow capture. dhh3 and jkeaton 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondie42550 Posted July 27, 2016 Report Share Posted July 27, 2016 My '09 Journey with 56,000 just developed the leak. :-( There are a couple of other issues but it IS 7 years old! Could be worse. Hopefully I can keep adding coolant until I get it to the shop next Friday! dhh3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkeaton Posted July 27, 2016 Report Share Posted July 27, 2016 7 hours ago, blondie42550 said: My '09 Journey with 56,000 just developed the leak. :-( There are a couple of other issues but it IS 7 years old! Could be worse. Hopefully I can keep adding coolant until I get it to the shop next Friday! Known issue. It's made of plastic. The welds fail over time. dhh3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasmine Richardson-Demnar Posted September 7, 2017 Report Share Posted September 7, 2017 I have the same problem with myy 2009 DJ having to get new one and hoping it hasn't done any other damage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkeaton Posted September 7, 2017 Report Share Posted September 7, 2017 9 hours ago, Jasmine Richardson-Demnar said: I have the same problem with myy 2009 DJ having to get new one and hoping it hasn't done any other damage. Hopefully it hasn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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