My son drives a 2000 Buick Century, 68,000 miles, and it appears he has a leak in the reservior for his coolant. I made a mark with a sharpie where the coolant level was, then filled the tank up. Coolant immediately started leaking but only went as low as the hash mark I had previously made. Could there be a crack in the seam of the tank that would cause this? The drip appears to fall directly from the tank, (I watched it). How much would this cost to replace/repair?
Yeah, there could be. They’re just thermoplastic, so you may be able to fix it with a good wattage soldering iron (120 watt should work) and perhaps some added material from perhaps a piece of a plastic juice pitcher or empty window wash fluid bottle. Or you can stop by the VIP store and ask them if they can order a replacement. It’ll be far cheaper than the dealership.
Since this is a non-pressurized tank, it would also work to smear the crack with silicone sealant.
This is easy to repair yourself and you have gotten good feedback. I think this is a job for JB Weld, myself. It should be pretty obvious how the tank mounts in the car, you should remove it, locate the leak, rinse it the tank with water and let it dry, then apply the epoxy to the crack and let it cure as necessary.
As a temporay fix, you could try duct tape. It seems to work on almost anything.
Good call MB.
My weapon of choice would be a hot glue gun.
The coolant overflow bottle in an old car I bought once was replaced with a salsa-jug that just happened to have the same sized lid as the original tank. It seemed to work just fine!