Water bottle cap stuck

[ptholt]

After baking in the duxford traffic yesterday my water bottle cap is stuck, any suggestions to help get it off?

[ianwayne]

Do you mean the windscreen washer bottle cap? Mine was actually missing and it's flimsy so could be just broken off if needs be. Replacement is £2.45:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...

If you mean the expansion tank then I presume some very large mole grips may be needed.

[ptholt]

expansion bottle sadly, its a particularly horrid cap to try and get a grip on, am wondering if theres a better alternative (leven?).

don't have any grips that size, may have to invest in them with summer coming lol

[s p a c e m a n]

Expansion tank? Got a metal cover on it or is it just the blue plastic cap?

Undo the screw at the top of the swirl pot to relive any pressure in the system. Use a bit of cloth on the top of the cap to give you something bigger to grip, got any grips that will go around the cloth?

Shout at it for a while too, that normally helps a bit

[ptholt]

horrible slidey blue plastic thing, not seeing a screw to undo to release the pressure..

[jojackson4]

The big one at the top

It where you fill it from

[chrispitman]

Not on the tank your looking at, the other in front of engine should have a brass screw on top. This has a small pipe connecting back to the tank on wing with blue cap. Release the brass screw to release any presure make sure engine is cold first

[phazed]

You'll find that the blue cap tightens as the temperature drops so trying to release when cold is difficult.

Try again with a cloth over it just to loosen it when it is hot, should be easy!

[Barreti]

Good tip Phazed. And when you think about it thats perfectly logical, but it had never dawned on me.

[fatboychim]

I use these,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-598531-Rubber-W...

Good for oil filters and anything else you need undone and don't want to damage.

[Milky400]

Tried all manner of things when I had mine, always looked cross threaded. End up finding a good pair of rubber builders gloves help with the grip, still always managed to knacker the wrist up. Although I like the idea of the rubber straps...

[TV8]

Ops car is a pre-serp so doesn't have the expansion tank shown. It can get tight! I think I used wide pliers. The cap was changed a couple of years ago.

[ptholt]

Great shout by Fatboychim, those puppies from Amazon had it off in seconds!