[jurgen68]

My '99 Taurus is leaking coolant out the "expansion" tank.
I already replaced this tank 3 times in the last 2 years.
On the internet I did read that it is a common problem with the Taurus but after replacing 3 of them you starts wondering.
The car runs fine but I'm afraid that the headgasket needs to be replaced.

Any words of wisdom?

 

[electro]

Are these expansion tanks from Ford? Could they be cheap quality?

Overpressure in a cooling system can defiantly be caused by a head gasket.
However, a restricted radiator, sticking thermostat, inoperative electric cooling fan, missing/rusting impellers on water pump can all cause overheating which directly translates to overpressure.

 

[neinstein]

This thread may be dead by now, but I'm gonna sound off on this anyway, having had same experience of fixing what ain't broke. I replaced the leaky tank on my 2001 vulcan-powered Taurus and it still leaked at the tank. Thinking overheat, I replaced the stat. Still leaked, water pump...yeah, i know,,,this is getting dumb. Was about to do the freeze plugs when I found a darn pinhole in the waterhose that runs under the air intake. The leak seemed to come from a different place, depending on how the car was parked (engine oriented uphill, downhill, sidehill, etc.) Hope you read this b4 doing the head gaskets.

 

[Ashzo77]

My '99 Taurus is leaking coolant out the "expansion" tank.
I already replaced this tank 3 times in the last 2 years.
On the internet I did read that it is a common problem with the Taurus but after replacing 3 of them you starts wondering.
The car runs fine but I'm afraid that the headgasket needs to be replaced.

Any words of wisdom?

the expansion tank is designed to dump extra coolant on the ground when it overfills due to excessive heat. i wonder if you have a thermostat problem, or if your coolant was mixed improperly...