quick bodge question...

[jabbalon]

hi all, got a quickie for the resident bodgers, apologies if iv posted in the wrong section.

basically had an incident with my coolant reservoir and have melted a thumb sized hole on the plastic. will take me a few days to source another so was wondering if anyone had any tips as to how i could do a quick repair suitable for a few short journeys until then.

at the moment am thinking some kind of amalgamating tape / tiger seal combo might do the trick but am open to suggestions!

[gareth.e]

tire rubber, bit of glue and a load of duc tape?

[paolow]

None without seeing it but whatever you do drive with the cap askew to prevent the system pressurising. . Wont help with the cooling but you will only have to deal with waterproofness not pressureproofness too

[Astra Dan]

Nut, bolt and penny washer?
Tap washer or some type of rubber washer?

[Superhoop]

Do you own a soldering iron?

Can you plastic weld?

If yes to both - then it's job done

[GKP]

Drill a hole in it so it's round, then wedge a cork in.

[jabbalon]

cheers for the replies chaps, much appreciated!

unfortunately the hole is quite oblong in shape and is the size of my thumb on the flat if that makes more sense? so it cant be plugged as such. the plastic welding sounds tip top, if i can get my hands on a soldering iron it might be the way to go.

if i do tape it i take it the possibilty of air getting in could cause problems as paolow mentioned?

[Jimmyarm]

Its not the air getting in, its the pressure of the coolant.

The coolant is under pressure (about 1bar) once it gets up to temperature which helps stop it boiling. Tapeing up the hole and leaving off the cap is the best solution in the short term.

If you leave the cap on and tape up/bodge the hole the pressure in the system will just blow it out along with a load of coolant.

[deadalfa]

A fibreglass repair could do it. The chap who said about slackening the rad cap has the right idea, plus you might need to drive around with the heater on full blast to stop it boiling over.

[TonyRPH]

If at all possible, try and apply any repair patch from the inside of the bottle, as then the pressure will tend to hold the repair patch rather than try to blow it out.

If it's a plastic bottle (I think you said?) then try using some PVC pipe weld (as used by plumbers) that will stick any plastics together (with a few exceptions).

And it's waterproof too.

[shalmaneser]

Repair is more hassle than it's worth I reckon - they're under quite a lot of pressure as mentioned earlier so the repair needs to be pretty good, and frankly cracking out the fibreglass for a repair of this sort is too much bloody effort!

Quick trip to the scrappy would seem to be in order.

[jabbalon]

thanks for all the feedback folks. hadnt realised the pressure could be an issue so cheers for the heads up

did a quick wraparound with some amalgamating tape, took the car to my yard and swapped it for the works van meantime. loosened the radiator cap and had the heaters on for good measure.

will have a good look tomorrow and see if its viable or worth it to try a repair. no breakers yards nearby so will be an ebay job and run the van til i get it sorted. its a dc2 teg so should be plenty of spares around hopefully.

cheers for all the suggestions!

[ShampooEfficient]

You could get a generic replacement from a kit car type supplier. Maybe a shiny one!

[jabbalon]

ShampooEfficient said:

You could get a generic replacement from a kit car type supplier. Maybe a shiny one!

mmm.... shiny is better!