A 2002 996 TT is my daily driver and I've accumulated +250,000 miles over the years. While I agree with most mechanics who say that the 996 TT engine is bulletproof, there are a few components outside of the engine that drive me nuts, one of them being the plastic coolant reservoir. It's been my experience that the plastic reservoir snuggled up against a hot engine doesn't age gracefully and in my case normally cracks open about ervery 20,000 miles and normally at the most non opportune times. Is there a non OEM replacement fabricated out of stainless or....anything other than plastic?

My apologies if this topic has already been beat to death earlier, though nothing came up in a search.

Thanks

 

i'm on my 4th ( or 3rd? ) if memory serves so not a bad idea. planned obsolescence is my guess. never heard of any but the usual plastic reservoir.
sure like the pure white unstained color of it going in though.

 

Thanks and mine is a 2002 X-50 as well

 

Mine is an 01. I changed the reservoir to a new OEM version at 70,000 km. I am now at 240,000 km and the reservoir is showing absolutely no sign of needing to be replaced.

 

Slider...you must be livin right! Either that or the majority of your miles where accrued over long drives. I'm in Los Angeles and my drives are on average about 10 miles, so there's a lot of heat up and cool down cycles to my 250K.

 

So a combination of location (excess heat) and perhaps design (material or thickness) is causing premature failure. Do they always split? Always in same location(s)?

 

Hi Dave,

Great question, though it didn't occur me to collect the cracked/split reservoirs and compare the fail locations from one to the next. I can say that the engine doesn't have any non-factory mods that would create a localized heat built up that is different from any other 996 TT. My best guess is that because I drive relatively short distances, like 5 miles to work and 10 miles to meetings results in there being more than normal heat cycles to the coolant system over my 250K miles as opposed to someone who has racked up those kind of miles at maybe 50 miles per heat cycle.

BTW, the Rennkit wing lift has been working out well.

 

The old reservoirs (yellow now) would just degrade and coolant would start flowing right through the side. If someone has a white one that leaks, I would love to see where the leak is. My trips are rarely over 10 miles each way and I use my TT as my daily driver.

 

I’d be interested in a larger front trunk mounted reservoir with extra capacity. Does nobody make one of these you can add ice to prior to racing?

 

my current and last swap is pure white still lol. probably now at 25k+ miles.

slightly OT but a good tip. once it's out you're right at the fuel filter so might wanna swap it while in there. it's often overlooked because it's hard to get at with the reservoir in front of it. as to their premature(?) cracking etc. i wonder if it's the original OEM's that were made out of slightly different material or what. i've never seen a replacement "yellow" or crack. who knows...

 

hi
I replaced the reservoir with a new OEM model. I've driven 240,000 kilometers and the reservoir shows no signs of having to be changed.turkish citizenship

 

Do you drive long distances? I drive relatively short distances, like 10-15 miles a day and there are a lot of heating and cooling cycles associated with my 247,000 miles. The average amount of miles that I get from the OEM coolant reservoirs is not even close to the 240,000 kilometers that you've gotten.

 

That's interesting that they are failing on you. I'm sure a fabricator could make you one out of whatever material you want for the right price. I replaced mine at 55k miles and I think it was the original tank.

 

headgaskets ok? could be pushing combustion pressure out...but the cap shouldn't allow it..

 

The engine was dropped recently and all the coolant hoses were replaced and pinned. There was no mention by the mechanics that this could be a head gasket issue and although I put nearly 250K miles on the car, it's been doing this since having low mileage...