My VW Passat hit 500,000K the other day - it's had nary an issue in all those km and years. Well, to celebrate this milestone, a T-junction and a Y junction of the coolant / radiator system decided to fail (just below the reservoir).
11 years out of plastique is remarkable, but I still wish they made em out of brass...anyway, after MacGyvering up a field repair out of 5 min epoxy, ball point pen bodies and electrickem's tape I drove the 80km home no problem, and began my search for replacement parts to get her un-jerry rigged.
Off to local VW Stealer. Nope, can't buy the T joint or the Y joint seperately. Need to buy entire plumbing. $275... I politely declined after exclaiming a fire truck had driven past the dealership...
Off to Supercheap, and bought an $11 brass (YAY!) T-junction. Seeing the Y is a 1" pipe with a 6mm off-shoot, I cut some brass tube, drilled/ground an elipse into it, and brazed on a 6mm offshoot. Done. Dusted. Princely some of $20 for the bits, and about an hour of work (plus some foul language after getting hot flux drip on my hand).
Went onto eBay. Found a European car shop selling exact OEM Y joint and T joints for $3.95 US each. Bought 'em just in case. (So, why can they get the joiners/splitters seperately, and we cannot????).
So far, my fabricobbling has lasted an additional 200 km with no issues... here's t at least 12000