The plastic coolant reservoir tanks in the S-Types are notoriously lousy and tend to crack and break at the hose nipple locations if you just look at them funny. The vast majority of these tanks must be replaced every few years due to their brittleness. The S-Type section of this forum is usually filled with folks complaining about coolant leakage, and 95% of the time the culprit is a cracked and leaking reservoir tank....

Our XK8 coolant reservoir tank appears to be visibly sturdier and more robust than our S-Type tank, and I see hardly any posts here on the XK8 section of folks with leaking tanks. Are the XK8 tanks indeed superior to the S-Type tanks?

 

Dont really know. But I have only replaced mine once. That is because the fitting on the bottom of the tank leaked at the o ring. Have to buy a new tank because there is no repair. Its not what I would call brittle. We all know about brittle plastics on these cars and this tank I would not classify as brittle.

 

Mine is from a VW... I guess the original failed.

 

Replaced mine on a 2001 XK8 at 75k miles. It had a small crack in the base leaking coolant onto the exhaust.

I've heard of several failures with these tanks but it mustn't be anywhere near the same as thermostat towers or the aftermarket suppliers would have jumped on the opportunity.

Graham

 

Changed thermostat tower yesterday to a used one bought through this site.

 

I just encountered the same issue with my 2001 XK8. Coolant expansion tank leaking onto the exhaust. . . The burning anti-freeze smell can knock you back a bit. . . time to start hunting down a new tank and add this to my TO DO list for the weekend.

 

On the first car replaced the reservoir at 106k miles due to a pin hole leak onto the left CAT. No indication of previous replacement and I have all the repair records.

On current car replaced original reservoir due to a pin hole in the body at about 45k miles with a used one. Twenty k miles later replaced that one for a pin hole in the body. Neither was at a seam or any other place that would indicate damage.

The plastic reservoir is obviously of lesser quality than you would expect from a car of this reputed quality . . . XK8 included.

 

Mine was replaced at like 80-90k, can't remember. I suppose its bound to come up sometime, but not too costly when it does.

 

More plastic crap that shouldn't have been used. I repaired two cracks in mine, but one must have opened up again because I get a tiny drip underneath...just enough to smell it but not enough to lose fluid.

Already replaced the cooling tower, water pump, etc., etc.