When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I had a fan failure and replaced the fan housing in 2018. The coolant overflow bottle is attached to the fan housing, and of course it doesn't have a separate part number, and I certainly didn't think I should keep the old bottle. I mean, what could go wrong with the bottle? Well, apparently the bottle attached to the fan I bought from RockAuto was made of substandard plastic. It has 5 separate cracks in it, which of course is allowing all the coolant to leak out. So far I have managed to patch it with epoxy, but short of encasing the entire thing in epoxy, I know it is a short term fix.
Does anyone have one of these lying around? Or have any idea what other model Toyotas or Lexus that used the same bottle? Thanks!
Hi Lazarus, just wanna let everyone know the coolant tank bottle can fail.
I replaced my cooling fans with a fan/shroud/coolant tank combo and guess what? a month after installation it started leaking at the plastic welded seams.
It drove me crazy.
After buying a plastic welding kit and trying to melt it back together, it would develop pin hole leaks again & again...
Finally on the 10th attempt or so it stopped leaking and it's been ok for last few months.
The original tank was stained and hard to see the coolant level so I was happy to have a new one but I guess I got the one with quality control issues. lol
My expansion tank is clouded too. I can’t see the level. There is a very good YouTube video of a clean up that brings is back to new. I’ll be doing that this summer.
The only dorman tank I can find for the rx330 is attached to the fan shroud. I cannot find anyone selling just the tank. If you have the part number that would be awesome.
At first I just wanted to upgrade my coolant tank with new but I couldn't find one either at the time and later when I suspected my cooling fans were about to fail I thought it was a great idea to do a kit replacement.
Really I just wanted a new tank so I could see my coolant level and was trying to justify the cost and this is long so bear with me...
Just a word of caution and my experience on replacing the fans/fan power modules/shroud/coolant tank as a kit.
I found out the hard way on the RX330 that in some of the newer kits offered, the fan motors are not compatible with the existing oem fan power modules. So they included "upgraded modules" with their kit and in my opinion they are junk- AND- I was unable to use my old fan modules because of "incompatibility". I had to return the first kit because the fans were coming on when they were supposed to be off and they were off when they were supposed to be on because the "included" fan modules were defective. I was fortunate I tested everything thru a cooling cycle before driving my car because I could have blown my engine.
Upon further investigation I discovered why they said you can't use the existing oem modules with this kit. This is because in the kit I bought, the fan modules regulate the fan speed by regulating the voltage up and down but on the oem modules the fan speed was controlled by pulse width modulation if I remember correctly as seen on the scope.
Also, it wasn't clear why the warning of possible damage occuring by using the old fan modules with the new fan motors, just that "damage can occur". So, not sure if the new motors would be damaged, or if fan speed would be incorrect, or damage my existing modules, or different motor current requirements burning wires, or damage to ECM, etc so I didn't attempt it.
What I had to do: I returned the kit I bought at the local auto part store and bought a different kit on ebay that looked identical in every way. The ebay kit did not include the fan modules and this is what I was looking for so I could use my existing ones and the problem was solved- except for the leaking coolant tank. lol
Wow, that sure is different, fan should included...but not needed thou.
Very true, I didn't need the shroud but it all came as a kit already put together.
But using any of the original parts was out of the question- the cooling fans, and coolant tank, etc doesn't fit the original shroud even though it looked like it should- that's why I couldn't put my old coolant tank back on when the new one defected.
So basically, it was all or nothing. lol
With module(silver metal box with plug/wires)
Without module(hole where module goes so I can use my old one)- this is the one on my car now and I also had a leaking tank after only a month or less in service that required several attempts to plastic weld it but at least it is compatible and fans work properly.
Yep, I used one of those kits when my fans went out.. The bottle I got in the kit lasted a little over 2 years before developing many cracks... Anyone that has used one of those kits will potentially have this issue. I'm probably going to end up buying an aftermarket coolant tank and making a mounting bracket for it.
03-23-21, 10:53 AM
Coolant Overflow Bottle Needed 2004 RX330
