I was out in my tool shed the other day. I was looking through my spare parts bin and I have most all of the coolant hoses and fittings since I replaced them in '14 before a trip to the Yukon Territory. So I found the bleeder T. I was looking at it, thinking to myself 'yeah, it's plastic but it feels pretty strong,' and as I was flexing it, the the thing developed a crack.

So I see what you mean. Even though I have a 2 year old one installed now, I'm going to replace it with a brass one and keep the plastic one for a spare. Running these engines out of coolant is a death blow. I'm taking no chances.

 

Unless it cracks when you remove it

 

Ha! Good point. I sure hope it doesn't since it's only 2 years and about 10,000 miles old!

 

FWIW mine died while driving down a gravel road to my barn - I was using my spidey-senses that day and actually noticed an unusually strong coolant smell from hvac vents. I know the vehicle enough that it actually convinced me to open the hood and take the engine cover off - sure enough, the tee had blown apart and was spewing coolant. Somehow I noticed it, pulled over and parked without loosing more than a half gallon of coolant! I managed to rig something in the woods there - I think I got a section of tubing and two hose clamps - re-bled the system then shoved the ends together and clamped it. Replaced it with the brass version a few days later at the shop.

Had I been towing the horse trailer to KY on I-81 in the middle of nowhere at highway speeds I probably would have drained the system and just noticed the overheat "bong" which really scares me just thinking about it!

 

I bought this online for under $30 to replace my bleeder screw. Same as falconworks but $30 cheaper

 

That works, but I still don't know why everyone in this thread insists on spending 6x - 15x more money for the same chunk of brass you can buy at any old redneck autoparts store! lol

 

Because Land Rover da**it!

(Note I have the redneck version myself, so I may be at risk of loosing all credibility as a LR owner. I didn't even have a cucumber finger sandwich for lunch, just plain ol' ham and swiss.)

 

My Bleeder T valve broke into little bits yesterday (Saturday). Fortunately, I was close to the house before she heated up. I have an 06 LR3.
No repair shops or parts stores open on Sunday, and needed the truck fixed asap. Went over to Home Depot and bought (2) 3/8 X 1/4 Barbs, 1/4 T connector, and 1/4 plug.
Seems to be holding up just fine.