Heads up on Dorman coolant rec tank

MadScience

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2010
Location
Huntersville NC
TDI
2002 Golf GLS TDI 5spd; 2002 Golf GL TDI 5psd; 1998 Beetle TDI 5spd (sold); 2001 Jetta TDI 5spd swap
The return hose nipple on my recovery tank cracked and sprayed the engine bay with coolant...nice. I need the car for work tomorrow and the only tank I could find locally was a Dorman from AZ. $48 with a cap which is not terrible once you factor in shipping from an online vendor.

It seems to be good quality and fits fine. The trouble I had was getting the coolant level electrical harness to fit on the tank. After a good bit of fiddling about, I figured out that the two electrical pins on the tank are too think for the harness. I had to spend some time with a needle file to get it to work. If that's not for you then you might want to avoid this tank.

Oh and open the box in the parking lot at AZ. I did and the first one was broken in the box. Fortunately they had another one at another store up the road.

Hope this helps.
 

2000alhVW

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2018
Location
Silver Spring, MD
TDI
2000 Golf
$48 is very high for this item.
Dorman is junk, avoid at all cost.
As you saw yourself, Dorman products are typically broken - literally in/out of the box even.
And they don't fit worth a damn, as you noted trying to connect the coolant level sensor.

For a recovery tank, it's whatever I guess.
But if I'm buying junk, I'd rather buy it for $7 on Rockauto...


Somehow Dorman manages to make every single part for every single car ever invented, but none of it ever fits :confused::confused:
 
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