NX Heater Assembly Gauge broke....any ideas on the cause (w/ pics)?

[Nitrousbird]

My NX kit is an earlier kit; I bought it new almost 5 years ago. Back then, the bottle heaters had a liquid filled gauge as part of the trigger assembly.

 

Entire assembly

 

I've never had any problems w/ it. Today is the first time I've sprayed all year. Got the bottle filled. As a precaution, after hooking up the bottle, I opened up very slowly, so the system could gradually build pressure. At about 700psi, I hear a pop, and saw clear liquid running down the side of my spare tire well (where I keep my bottle). I look at the top of the gauge, and see this:

 

Gauge face, missing most of its oil now

 

I take the gauge assembly out, and look at the side of it. Looks like some pressure release port popped out the side of it:

 

Port that popped out on the side of the gauge

 

Now I've not beaten on this gauge, and it hasn't moved from its location in years. Where it is mounted, NOTHING touches where that port side is. And at 700psi (both that gauge and my dash gauge verified), the pressure is well below acceptable limits

 

Entire assembly, open port side

 

Any clue as to what caused this?? I'd say the cold from the winter, but the car sees the same winter cold every winter. I've done nothing back there to bother it. Perhaps just something freak happened??

 

For now, I just bypassed it, and now I have to manually shut the heater on/off, or it will heat forever. I can fix it w/ out the gauge, but I like having it back there. Figured I'd see if anyone else has experienced something similar prior to me contacting NX about it.

[desperado]

The cold will not effect the glycern in the gauge (that's the liquid) but extreem heat will. The other possibility is that the copper tube in the gauge ruptured from standard use and blew up the gauge. If you apply pressure to the gauge (hook it up and turn on the tank) does it leak nitrous out the port that blew out? If that's the case, go down to Jegs, take the other gauge with you and buy a new tank gauge that will screw in there. And that should fix the problem.

I have seen gauges fail like that before but they were oxygen tank side gauges on a torch set. Pressures are double. But all gauges will fail at some point, or at least become inaccurate.