Planning on doing a tank replacement to in the near future. Have the pinhole leak. Not a bad leak by any means, and I don't need to top it up but every month or two with regular driving, so I'm not too under the gun. But just out of curiosity, has anyone replaced the cheapo plastic breather line from the tank to the thermostat housing with seamless metal tubing? I used to bend metal tubing back in college for Mack Truck air-brake systems and it is not a tough task. A couple of bump flares on the ends for short rubber hose connections and that should do it. Thought something similar for the valley hoses might be a good idea as well, if a bit more difficult due to bends in the lines. So has anyone done something like that?

 

 

These plastic reservoirs can and will leak in multiple places (the nozzles, the seams, etc.) after enough time and heat cycles. I prefer to pony up the $60 at rockauto.com and just replace the whole damn thing....

 

Remember, the thermostat housing is on the engine and the tank is on the chassis. Only a flexible solution of sorts is appropriate. Anything "solid" would likely fatigue and fail. Might also propagate engine vibrations as noise to the entire car. Just have a look at how much Jaguar goes out of its way with noise management with these "instumount" rubber posts. That being said, some of us have replaced this 3-part (4 interfaces!) setup with a simple rubber hose with no ill effect.

Best of luck, keep us posted.

 

I too replaced with rubber hose.

John