So about 3 years ago, our neighbor's were moving out, they had this 2004 xc90 they just wanted gone, 160K and had lots of issues, one of them being the thermostat housing was leaking at the nipple, could not get the hose off the nipple and the nipple ended up breaking off completely, so new timing belt kit, housing, hose, the lot. About a year later, going down the road i get the "low coolant, stop engine" light, find out its that plastic nipple (the first one was metal that broke) on the housing leaking, it stays parked outside on gravel so i didn't notice it, timing belt didn't look good so new one and new housing with a aftermarket metal one, good to go right, well a month ago, my son is driving it and he got the same massage "low coolant, stop engine" i get a call of "dad, its leaking everywhere" have it towed and what do ya know, the nipple broke again, and at the same place like all the others, right at the base of the housing, so i finally break down and buy the genuine Volvo thermostat housing (came with a plastic nipple) thought well, its a genuine part, has to be better, so last week (i've been very busy) got it installed, finish everything, about to hook up the overflow hose to the nipple, push in and the dag nab thing breaks...... i literally stand there for about 5 minutes trying to figure out what i just did wrong, pull the cover back off and sure enough, broke clean off at the base on the housing like all the others. I'm just lost for words.

So here's the thing i'm trying to figure out, i'm not really wanting to put much else into this thing from now on, its done a good job, but this is getting really aggravating. i have a friend with a 99 s80 as a parts car (went over there to see if it had the same parts as my xc90) it has the same housing but with no nipple on it, this got me thinking (and wondering if others have gone through the same thing and why this is happening) what would happen if i put the housing from the s80 on my xc90 and just bypass the overflow hose? would this cause any issues?


Thanks