Community Forums:

Believe it or not, the ONLY time when those plastic tanks will ever give the owner any trouble is when the driver hits something with the front of the radiator, like a high cement stopping block, high curb or ice bank in the winter. The radiator hangs low and many people are unaware just how volnerable it is to damage like that and if hit hard enough, one of the side tank ears will break off usually causing a coolant leak and requiring a new radiator. Even if the radiator had copper or aluminum side tanks, it too would also not likely survive the same accident w/o leaking if that's even a consideration. The plastic tanks cause no problems in themselves if never hit and those are very good radiators usually lasting about 200K miles, give or take a few.