Here's one to remember!

Glad to see you lads are getting on well, makes me feel at home

Back on thread - sorry!

The comment I got at the garage is that this has been seen before, a known fault, and can be a normal failure due to the age of the plug - the trouble was that this plug can be a bugger to get out and you can damage the thread, hence I let this mob deal with it (that and the 60 miles home!).

I wonder how many have had this sort of failure and done more damage!

P.S. if your following my other thread, this occoured a month ago, before the "noise" issues! so cant be related - can it!

kitekrazy said:

The comment I got at the garage is that this has been seen before, a known fault, and can be a normal failure due to the age of the plug - the trouble was that this plug can be a bugger to get out and you can damage the thread

Click to expand...

Yes - it is a common problem - I believe it is to do with heat cycling on the plastic - it embrittles it.
Quite often the top flange section shears from the threaded collar, either due to the above, or when trying to remove it.
The collar is easy to remove though, without damaging the thread.

By replacing this with a brass "household radiator air bleed valve" all of these problems are eliminated, and with the added advantage that the centre bleed nippple can be cracked open, when the engine is hot, without risk to you.