Plastic in Engine Compartment

[SeaDawg]

Chris, when I look in the engine compartment, I see lots of plastic.  Plastic deteriorates when in contact with petroleum products and in a hot environment. Now I realize plastic isn't the same plastic of 50 years ago, but it is still plastic.

In fact it looks like the coolant reservoir is actually a system  pressure component, rather than just an overlfow as in American vehicles.  Also it looked like the oil filter canister cover that unscrewed was also plastic. I feel an apprehension that when the payments are approaching the end in 5 years that some of these parts may require replacement (hopefully not without warning) due to deterioration ie cracking or brittleness.  I live in Florida and the environment is pretty warm year round....I would suspect some places in the southwest to be even hotter.

What do the Engineers say about the prospective lifespan of these and other plastic engine compartment components?

[PiZ]

SeaDawg wrote

Chris, when I look in the engine compartment, I see lots of plastic.  Plastic deteriorates when in contact with petroleum products and in a hot environment. Now I realize plastic isn't the same plastic of 50 years ago, but it is still plastic.

In fact it looks like the coolant reservoir is actually a system  pressure component, rather than just an overlfow as in American vehicles.  Also it looked like the oil filter canister cover that unscrewed was also plastic. I feel an apprehension that when the payments are approaching the end in 5 years that some of these parts may require replacement (hopefully not without warning) due to deterioration ie cracking or brittleness.  I live in Florida and the environment is pretty warm year round....I would suspect some places in the southwest to be even hotter.

What do the Engineers say about the prospective lifespan of these and other plastic engine compartment components?

....no worries !
That plastic has no problems with temperature and petroleum products.
For a real life proof, consider that in my engine bay (that becomes VERY hot, trust me ! ) there are a lot of plastic pieces and no problem. Ah....the car is 11 years old.
A lot of other cars have plastics there and are also older than mine.

Look at this Audi engine compartment:

...what you see it's 90% plastic

Ciaooo

PiZ

[Fiat500USA]

SeaDawg wrote

Chris, when I look in the engine compartment, I see lots of plastic.  Plastic deteriorates when in contact with petroleum products and in a hot environment. Now I realize plastic isn't the same plastic of 50 years ago, but it is still plastic.

In fact it looks like the coolant reservoir is actually a system  pressure component, rather than just an overlfow as in American vehicles.  Also it looked like the oil filter canister cover that unscrewed was also plastic. I feel an apprehension that when the payments are approaching the end in 5 years that some of these parts may require replacement (hopefully not without warning) due to deterioration ie cracking or brittleness.  I live in Florida and the environment is pretty warm year round....I would suspect some places in the southwest to be even hotter.

What do the Engineers say about the prospective lifespan of these and other plastic engine compartment components?

Hi SeaDawg,

Like PiZ says, no wories!  I have never had a problem with any of the plastic parts on my cars (a 95 Audi and a 2000 Audi A4, both have a lot of plastic).  

[Fiat500USA]

PiZ wrote

SeaDawg wrote

Chris, when I look in the engine compartment, I see lots of plastic.  Plastic deteriorates when in contact with petroleum products and in a hot environment. Now I realize plastic isn't the same plastic of 50 years ago, but it is still plastic.

In fact it looks like the coolant reservoir is actually a system  pressure component, rather than just an overlfow as in American vehicles.  Also it looked like the oil filter canister cover that unscrewed was also plastic. I feel an apprehension that when the payments are approaching the end in 5 years that some of these parts may require replacement (hopefully not without warning) due to deterioration ie cracking or brittleness.  I live in Florida and the environment is pretty warm year round....I would suspect some places in the southwest to be even hotter.

What do the Engineers say about the prospective lifespan of these and other plastic engine compartment components?

....no worries !
That plastic has no problems with temperature and petroleum products.
For a real life proof, consider that in my engine bay (that becomes VERY hot, trust me ! ) there are a lot of plastic pieces and no problem. Ah....the car is 11 years old.
A lot of other cars have plastics there and are also older than mine.

Look at this Audi engine compartment:

...what you see it's 90% plastic

Ciaooo

PiZ

Hi Piz,

That engine compartment looks familiar, I have a 2000 A4!

[PiZ]

Fiat500USA wrote

Hi Piz,

That engine compartment looks familiar, I have a 2000 A4!

Hi Chris,

it is from an A6. I put this photo because I have worked a lot in the engine compartment of the Audi S6 of a friend of mine and I know the huge amount of platic that you can find there !
Also to say that not only Fiat uses plastics....it's a clever solution with good properties and light weight  

[ciddyguy]

SeaDawg wrote

Chris, when I look in the engine compartment, I see lots of plastic.  Plastic deteriorates when in contact with petroleum products and in a hot environment. Now I realize plastic isn't the same plastic of 50 years ago, but it is still plastic.

In fact it looks like the coolant reservoir is actually a system  pressure component, rather than just an overlfow as in American vehicles.  Also it looked like the oil filter canister cover that unscrewed was also plastic. I feel an apprehension that when the payments are approaching the end in 5 years that some of these parts may require replacement (hopefully not without warning) due to deterioration ie cracking or brittleness.  I live in Florida and the environment is pretty warm year round....I would suspect some places in the southwest to be even hotter.

What do the Engineers say about the prospective lifespan of these and other plastic engine compartment components?

Yep, as PiZ and Chris have both said, today's cars, especially those built in the past 20 years  or so have a lot of plastic pieces in them, like the airbox for the air filter, even my old 1988 Honda Accord used plastics there and it was still sold as the day it was new when I sold it with 180K or so miles on it back in 2006, my 1992 Ford Ranger has a plastic shield amongst other plastic parts and they hold up very well and it has almost 234K on the clock, if not just over that now.

So plastics CAN hold up to heat as there ARE heat resistant plastics out there, thermal plastics, phenolic resins come to mind that do.