Why does Ford pinch pennies with their radiators?

[DeltaMustang65]

I apologize if this doesn't belong here, but since it's related to my '99 Taurus and not my '65 Mustang, I didn't know where to put it. Maybe somebody has had this problem with a Mustang...

Anywho...I was changing the fluids today, and all was going well. That was until it came time to tighten up the radiator draincock or whatever it's called. THE THING IS MADE OF PLASTIC!? And guess what, it broke off and I was being super careful with it.

Now, here's the question. As far as I can tell, the plastic part doesn't come all the way out. (That would make it too easy to replace, I suppose) Am I going to have to replace the ENTIRE radiator next time I want to change the fluids? Is the thing going to spring a leak at the most inconvenient time possible?

This is driving me insane. My '65 Mustang has a metal draincock, and they're completely removable to boot. Why would Ford see fit to save a few pennies and start using plastic ones? The Taurus is my daily driver, I need it to get to college and work, and now I'm worrying about it's reliability. What should I do?

[Capri306]

Ford's in the business to make money, plain and simple. If they can shave 5 cents off the cost of each vehicle they make, multiply that by how many they're making, and you quickly see why they strangle their suppliers to reduce costs.

As far as your petcock goes (heh, I said cock), it should come out with a little love, unscrewing, and yanking. Seriously, they make replacements for it, and are available at most retail parts stores. It's not that uncommon to have the plastic thumbpiece bust off like that.

If you're that worried about reliability, buy a Honda. Mine served me well through two years of college, and ran like new @ 181,000 miles when I sold it.

[DeltaMustang65]

Thanks for the reply.

Hmmm...I'm not sure if it'll come out. I already tried, but not that hard because I didn't want to make things worse. Also, when I was draining the radiator, the plastic piece wouldn't come all the way out, it would just come far enough to open the drain hole and then just kinda dangle there.The plastic part that broke is just a nut/bolt type thing that blocks off the actual drain hole as you tighten it. Ugh, this is why I hate new cars. They really don't make them like they used to.

I'm sure I could just rip the dumb thing out, but I want to make sure the part is replaceable (and available) before I do. If all else fails, I guess that when I need a coolant change again, I could just see if Ford has a combo deal on radiators, haha.

p.s. I can see why this breaking off is not that uncommon. The part that snapped is about 1/20 of a centimeter thick. Grrrr...

[84LX89GT]

yeah, the first time i tightened one of those plastic petcocks (lol) i broke it off on my '89 GT. Basically you have to hand tighten it then with a wrench very very slightly tighten it....retarded.
Yeah ford cuts corners EVERYWHERE.

[Rev]

I once bought a brand new '75 Ford Granada Ghia with the 351W. It was a beautiful car in my opinion, but it did leak from the petcock where it screwed into the radiator. I looked down there and it was obvious that the brass petcock had been cross threaded into the radiator at the factory, thus causing the leak.

I took it to the dealer under warranty. It came back with some "plumbers helper" epoxy smeared around the cross threaded petcock, thus momentarily stopping the leak. I then removed the petcock and cleaned up the mess of the epoxy crap. I then was able to very carefully restart the petcock back into the radiator the way it should have gone in to begin with.

Needless to say, I wasn't exactly thrilled with the way my new Ford started it's career. There were many other issues that followed, but that was the first and the dumbest.

Rev

[DeltaMustang65]

Should I be worried about this thing springing a leak on me?

[Capri306]

No, not once you replace the petcock. It's pretty much one of those parts you replace with something better than what the factory gave, and it's good for the 'life of the car.'

[DeltaMustang65]

I'll call the Ford dealership here and see what they have as far as non-plastic replacements. I think this is just throwing me because I'm not used to the garbage they put on new(ish) cars these days.

[Gearhead999]

Sure it's plastic and cheap...but all the OE's are going to, if they don't already have it, Plastic petcocks.

Some only have a screw in plug, plastic too.

[Rev]

I wouldn't even care if the plastic petcocks were $5 as they should be. Does anyone kinow what they cost?

Rev

[frmula505]

I had to replace one on a friends Taurus. It came out pretty easy. I think it was around 10 bucks at Autozone. Her car had overheated and the whole center section popped right off. If i remember right the other piece juse unscrews right out. ( it was a couple of years ago)

[Mach 1]

All new cars use plastic as much as possible not because they "are cheap" but becuase its light and saves fuel.

Ford actually uses a solid radiator compared to what some other manufactures are selling.

I would probably repair it for piece of mind, but i dont suppose it will leak since you seemed to have overtightened it enough to break off.

[I8URVTEC]

I've seen worse in the radiator department...Jeep wranglers are the worst with radiators. They are mostly metal but the top is plastic and they almost always crack right along that line where it switches to plastic. It happened on my girlfriend's Jeep so I asked around about it and everyone says the stock radiators usually go around 35,000 miles.