Sovy Failure

[Heuer]

I went to play with my FHC this morning (first time in a few weeks) and found one of the brake reservoirs empty. Seems the outlet on the Sovy bottle fractured on its own accord:



it was four years old but had the reinforcing insert and I did my best to ensure the hose put as little pressure as possible on it. Any thoughts on the quality of the currently available ones?

[288gto]

David,

Sorry I can't help on the quality aspect of you question but I know Richard (rswaffie) had a new one fail recently.

I have inserted a short length of pre bent kunifer pipe into the rubber hose so that the end of the rubber hose is parallel to the reservoir bottle outlet and hopefully not putting any strain on it.
With numerous accounts of the new bottles failing I cleaned up the originals and re fitted those even though they are slightly yellow.
Hopefully the pipe insert tip makes sense. It is a useful means of getting a nice radius on a rubber pipe and relieving any pressure on a connection. I'll put some pics up later.

Did it mark the paintwork on the bulkhead?

Simon

[Whitact]

Yes, I had the same thing happen to me last year. Returned the bottle to MC&W who said they had not come across this before. The paint on the bulkhead was badly marked so the fix involved a lot more work that just changing the bottle. Simon's modification seems like an excellent idea but I suspect the plastic may be failing in response to no more than just vibration.
Cheers,

[Heuer]

Yes, it marked the paintwork!


If I had noticed it last week I would have brought it up at the SNGB User Group as Barratt's own Sovy. I wonder if there is a higher grade of plastic they can use? It is a real pain given there is the possibility of any of three of them failing at some point in their life.

They need to find a permanent fix as the square bottles for the later cars suffer the same weakness.

[johnetype]

Is corrosion around the outside of the insert causing it to swell and split the plastic?

[Heuer]

Not as far as I can see.

[Jeremy]

Having read all the tales of split outlets on these bottles, I always feel slight anxiety every time I open the bonnet. I got a new set from SNGB as they had metal inserts and my existing ones didn't - so I hoped they'd be more durable. But judging by David's post it doesn't look like that helps.
David, might you ask Julian to add this to his list as a priority item, in view of the collateral damage to paintwork and particularly the safety issue? It's rather worrying....

[Heuer]

Yes Jeremy I will bring the thread to Paul Domican's (Group Operations Director) attention and let him deal with it. A safety related issue for sure as the spigot can fracture at any time and the bottle drains in minutes leaving you stranded, at best!

[steve3.8]

A few thought's David,
The weakness in the spout could be a moulding issue where two material fronts meet and give a weld line/stitch line .
If the reinforcing tube is press fitted after moulding, this could be over stressing the material
Another could be the lack of a decent fillet radius at the base of the spout where the split could start from.
One solution is to cut the spout off and fit a bolt in push on connector .

[Heuer]

I have seen these bottles split where the two moulded halves are bonded together at the base and also around the the spigot. The originals had a tube in the spigot with a filter on the end (only required because the cork floats broke down) but that was to prevent the spigot being crushed by the clip. You can see how this original one cracked along the weld:


The current version of the bottles have a base around the tube to give more strength.


I think you may be correct about the tube being pressed into the spigot which may cause a stress line which leads to cracking under stress. I have three original bottles but they all leak in the same area but given they are over 50 years old the plastic has become brittle. This is an original showing the same problem:



I think they need to look for a more flexible plastic or undertake some research to see what can be achieved with more modern materials. It is not a new problem, it has plagued Sovy from the 1960's.

[rswaffie]

As per one of the earlier replies, I had one of my new brake reservoirs split on the base at the spigot. It had been fitted for 6 months, but the car has not been used in that time, so rule vibration out in this instance. I suspect it was due to not having the hose perfectly vertical, causing strain on the spigot leading to a split. It has been replaced and I’ve re-sited the bottle to remove any strain. However, I’m now paranoid that the same will recur and imho, this is a design issue as the material used is clearly not up to the job. The base need to be more rigid to prevent any movement around the spigot entry point.

[Jeremy]

If Paul can build a better bottle, I think the world will beat a path to SNGB's door and they will sell hundreds...

[Series1 Stu]

I'm sure these bottles are blow moulded, not moulded in halves and then welded together, which would be a recipe for disaster.

Disposable shampoo bottles, bleach bottles etc. etc. are all blow moulded and are of a much higher quality than the rubbish that we expect to use for years in our cars.

The spigots do present a problem but it's nothing that hasn't been overcome before. The inserts should preferably be insert moulded or heat inserted after moulding.

There's no great mystery around this but there is a considerable tooling cost involved. The typical shoe string budgets of the parts vendors don't help here.

Regards

[mgcjag]

Just a quick update....Julian Barratt has just posted in the SNG user group thread that Paul Domican (Group Ops Dir) is now looking into this issue.....Steve

[MarekH]

If someone (probably Julian) wants to send me a couple of clean unused bottles, I think I might be able to fix this.
kind regards
Marek

[Heuer]

Thanks Marek! If anyone can get it sorted quickly it will be you.

[ysmalkie]

Marek, et al.

The round and square bottles break in numerous places - not just the bottom. I think the problem is with the plastic that is being used.

I have reported the problem to SNG few years back, but unfortunately all I got was a replacement.
Which cracked as well.
I have again reported this 2 weeks ago, still waiting for a reply back. :-(

So, I recently bought 6 used bottles - I hope 2 are usable...

Tadek

[Heuer]

Tadek

I have three original bottles and was hoping to restore and re-use them. They all leaked with two having cracked around the top of the spigot and the third cracked along the length of it. A fourth I tried had cracks along the mould line at the base. I did try plastic welding but I could not get them to stop leaking. As I said, it has been a problem since they were introduced back in the 1960's.

[ysmalkie]

I will have to take a good look at mine -for my own car - I think they are actually not leaking, they are just yelowish.

David, there was a very good article I saw somewhere (and foolishly did not save) which explained a process of restoring old plastic bottles. I remember a part of this process was sunlight exposure. Would you happen to know about this? You usually do remember and know everything...

Tadek

[rswaffie]

Hi
It’s in the Knowledgebase.

http://www.exisle.net/mb/index.php?/top ... after-all/