I have a 2004 2.7t allroad that has developed a antifreeze leak. Kindof a small one not to major but enough to make the shield wet. I cant seem to find it. when you look from under the car on the pass side front it seems to be dripping down the side of the engine around the oil pan and onto the line that looks like a line that goes to the turbos. At first i though it was the turbo lines but you can see stains on the top side of the oil pan. Any ideas? waterpump? i had the timing belt and pump done at 75k and the car now has 109k.


thanks
dave

 

thermostat housing?

when I reassembled mine (improperly) after the timing belt change that is where it came seemed to be coming from. leaks down the front of the engine and drips off the passenger side rear corner of the oil pan.

 

i am wondering also if that aux waterpump may be coulprit. Back in september october the car was loosing very little coolant. winter came and it stopped. This week has been first warmer week since the fall and now its leaking. worse than before. I heard that aux pump comes on when temp hits a certain degree.

 

Looked under the intake at that is all dry. seems to leak when the engine has been shut off for a while.

would stink to have to go back and have the waterpump done again. it was done 35000 miles ago

dave

 

turns out the waterpump is bad. less than 35,000 miles on it and it is leaking. I asked the mechanic to replace the timing belt also when he does the pump but he said the belt does not need to get done. I find that weird? why not just do the belt so i am good for another 75k miles? he was adoment about not changing the belt. Any ideas why? only thing i can think of is so i come in sooner to do the timing belt/waterpump service

 

Mine has been intermittently leaking for a year now ... since I did my timing belt.

It can go MONTHS with no issue, and then require refilling the tank 3x in a month.

Seems to lean when the car is off.

I've had a really hard time pinpointing the source. Even purchased a milwaukee scope to try to snake around and find it. Had it up on a lift. Impossible to locate!

 

i did my timing belt & etc. change in feb-2011 with a blauparts kit at 80k, have had no issues until a few weeks ago. i take the highway about 5 miles to work (70mph@3k rpm tiptronic), notice coolant smell after i get to work and after i come home.

no puddles until recently. would leave small puddle after it was parked for atleast an hour, so i assumed aux coolant pump and after closer look i think not considering my temp doesnt go over 210F and couldnt see any coolant around intake near engine valley. leaking off passenger side of oil pan which makes me think thermostat housing or water pump is at fault.
also, can hear gurgling sometimes inside car while driving, so i think coolant is slowly leaking from thermostat housing/water pump area and air is traveling to heater core which is highest point in system (similar to reservoir) causing gurgling noise once i accelerate.

past two days i took the scenic route to work never going over 55mph(~2300rpm) and seem to have no issues after i topped off coolant reservoir with distilled water and it is still full.

i plan on opening it up thursday night/ friday morning because i want to fix this issue before old man winter comes and i will keep y'all updated.

im going to go pull my battery and check the heater core right now to see if there is air in it.

-ttyl

 

just removed my battery and def had air in my heater core, burped all the air out the cooling system as i topped it off, took it for a 5 minute ride around the hood maxing out at 35mph, came home and coolant is leaking off the passenger side of the oil pan as it is idling so pretty sure i have to take it apart to find the leak, fml

 

Did you get anywhere with this leak? I have the exact same thing. I suspect it's the thermostat.

Mine only leaks HOURS after it's been sitting/cooling off.

I *really* *REALLY* do not want to take this thing apart again for a thermostat. I want to dig up my video on the TB job to see if there are any clues as to whether this can be done w/o taking the front end off.

I'd love to hear if you made any progress with yours. Thanks!

 

i took my front end off to do the timing belt change procedure to get to the thermostat. it seemed as if there was a little teeny tiny drip coming from the bottom of where the actual thermostat is. i picked up an aluminum thermostat housing from VAST performance in Ferndale MI, a few of my water pump bolts could be tightened 1/4 - 1/2 turn, i could only access half of them since i didnt remove my power steering pump as i mainly wanted to access the therm-housing. i've had no coolant loss since i installed the alum-therm-housing and new thermostat a month ago and i've put about 850 miles on it since then.

did tb service at 80k ~feb-2011, noticed significant coolant loss few months ago at 87.5k. installed aluminum thermostat housing at 88k and now almost to 89k with no issues yet. i have been babying my car and avoiding highway since i need a new torque converter and dont feel like dropping the trans outside in this cold michigan winter.

if my coolant starts leaking in a couple months then i will know it because my water pump loosened up a bit and not the thermostat housing. until that happens i will assume my stock thermostat housing was to blame and that this fixed it. the aluminum thermostat housing only has two bolts instead of three and it works fine. it appeared to be an oem audi replacement part according to the casting numbers/symbols on the outside.

i am pretty sure that i did NOT add new loctite to the water pump bolts when doing TimingBelt at 80k as they seemed to have a bunch of green stock goopy stuff on them. i will update in spring/summer if coolant leak happens again and i have to open up to find out why.

good luck. i'd recommend cam lock bar, cam pulley puller from autozone, and basic socket kit to kit the job done. i used the crank locking pin at 80k but not recently for just the thermostat housing, be careful and make sure you dont mess up timing.