Hey Everybody,

Ok so I had a large coolant leak a few weeks back, at about a quart a day so I assume it's time to do the coolant pipe replacement. Starter went out also so I parked the pepper in the back of the house & left it alone a couple weeks, and finally I had a chance to get to working on it today. Took 4 hours to get the intake & associated parts off, only to find out I already have aluminum pipes.

Going to have to call the dealer in the morning & have service records pulled to see if any dealership did the work. I would assume if a dealer did the replacement, there's some sort of lifetime warranty on the job? Anybody have an idea where else the leak could be coming from? There's definitely coolant in the normal place the cracked ones would be leaking into, so I'm very confused here. Anybody else have a similar issue?

 

Could be a broken coolant T, If the coolant T is busted it usually leaks behind the engine, but under pressure could squirt everywhere. Check my "coolant T crapola" thread on rennlist.

 

If done at the dealer, you would have a 2-year warranty on parts. Most dealers will also warranty the labor to match.

 

+1...

 

Ok thanks guys. So if my coolant T is broken, will I still leak coolant into where the starter sits? I assumed (and was hoping) it was something like the T in the back of the engine because I was leaking almost directly under where the reservoir sits, along the rear passenger side wheel well. But when the starter went out I thought it was the normal plastic piping that burst. If you look in the last picture, you can actually see standing coolant to the left of the starter.

I called the dealer to have service records pulled to see if they did the work, and they said "due to privacy laws we cannot give out that information." I explained that I owned the vehicle and I needed to see if a dealer did the work, because if they did I would need to know when the work was done and find out if it's still under dealer warranty, and she told me unfortunately she cannot give that info out. I asked her how I was to find out if a dealership ever did the work, and she said "they will let me know when I bring the car in."

Is this even normal? I've had service records pulled from previous cars I've owned without hassle as long as I had proof of ownership/insurance. I'm going to call my old dealer in NJ since I have repor there and see if I can get the nice woman there to give me the info I need to proceed.

On another note, I'll have to take the coolant pipes out anyway since I'll be replacing the starter, how difficult is getting to that T and replacing it? I was wondering about that since the DIY ECS gives makes no mention regarding that T hose.

 

Yeah, I have experienced that before from a dealer. I agree that you have a right to know, however, the dealer is protecting themselves from liability in the event that you potentially decide to use that information to (A) make a purchase decision from another owner or (B) sue another party based on inaccurate information. Either event could cause the dealer to be in the middle of a messy and costly legal dispute.

Unfortunately, protecting yourself from liability trumps the "right thing to do". Seems to be the norm in the northeast. In this case, the best bet would be a friendly inside contact.

In regards to the pipe replacement itself, I have not done it before so cannot give much help on this front.

G/L

 

I'm actually in the good ole' south now, I moved back to Dallas late October. It's like the new LA down here, everybody seems to have lost their hospitality when they got botox/boob jobs/lipo/etc. I figured this wouldn't be a big deal at all to see if any dealer did the work. So if I tow the truck down there, I'm assuming they'll charge $180 just to look at it, and THEN tell me if a dealer did the service or not? Oh boy.

 

The pipes do not have to be removed to replace the starter. It will just fit out without pipe removal.


Is your vehicle a turbo? If not (and it didn't look like one in the photos) - there are no "T" fittings - those are turbo only. Plus - I can't see any way where a leaking T will leave coolant in the valley of the engine since they're located behind and off to the side a bit of the engine, below the top of the cylinder heads (making them a PITA to get to.)


I'd be looking at the rubber junction on the big pipe, and at where all the fittings/pipes go into the thermostat housing. I'd also be looking at the junction of the rubber hoses to the three top pipes.. if you see dried coolant around the junction you've found the problem. Porsche uses spring clips for those hoses, and the clips lose tension with age. Quality screw clamps would be a better idea for those hoses.

 

Oh - one other thing.


The dealer can only pull up service work if it was done under warranty OR done at their dealership. Work done out of warranty is only recorded at the servicing dealer.

 

I would also look at the coolant hose that is under the pipes at the rear. It is about 1.5" in diameter and about 2" long. It is in your pic. Quite often when the pipes are replaced this hose is not replaced. As mentioned Ts are only on the turbo.

 

mtnrat it's a CTT, so it has the T hose. I'll have to investigate that area when I get home from work, last night when I got the intake mani off I was expecting to see the plastic pipes, beyond that I just shut the hood for the night so I didn't really try to see exactly where the leak was coming from. This weekend I'll hook up the air compressor to the coolant reservoir and do a pressure test & see if it shows me anything.

One thing I was wondering, in the 2nd pic you can see that the pipes toward the front of the block have about a 1/8th inch gap between the fittings, could that be a possible root problem?

 

I see that gap in other pictures that I looked at within coolant pipe threads. .Here is one from the coolant pipe thread on rennlist.

 

Not an issue - the seals on the pipes are O rings in a groove on the pipe where it goes into the bore of the opening on the thermostat housing. When mine was done - my mechanic used RTV on all the connections just to make absolutely sure there would be no leaks. It's possible one of these might be leaking if the O ring was nicked or damaged on installation. IIRC - there are two O rings at each junction, so hopefully if one fails the other one is still holding back the flood..

 

Ok, running pressure through my system today, hopefully the leak is visible and an easy fix. Anybody have part numbers for these? Broke them upon removal of the intake/TB.

 

I did the same to mine, as have others. Electrical tape does wonders.