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Old 01-27-2013, 07:38 PM   #1
Renovatio_
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Default Mysterious passenger side coolant leak! Help!

I have a coolant leak but I cannot locate where it is coming from.

The coolant seems to be pooling on top of the passenger side engine. If you look down between the alternator and power steering pump there would be a large pool of fresh coolant. When the car is hot there is quite a lot of coolant dripping from the passenger side of the car. I think it only leaks when it is hot.

I checked the upper radiator hose and found that it was dry with no leaks. A few inches away appears to be some wetness.

The radiator has been replaced recently and there are no leaks from that area.

I checked the turbo coolant lines with a mirror and they are clean and dry.

There is a small amount of coolant pooled on top of the timing belt cover below the alternator/powersteering pump

I checked the lower radiator hose and water pump/thermostat hoses and area. They are clean and dry.

I checked the coolant reservoir near the turbo and the lower line is clean and dry on both ends.

I even pulled off the alternator and found that the temperature sensor was clean and dry. However the pool of coolant is about 3 inches away from sensor.

I don't know what else to check? I don't want to think its the head gasket but is it the head gasket?

Edit: Since the Car is in ramps it appears that the leak starts from under the intake and is draining back towards the turbo inlet.
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Last edited by Renovatio_; 01-27-2013 at 08:22 PM.
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Old 01-27-2013, 07:44 PM   #2
tibug
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The coolant crossover pipe could have a bad gasket. There are two gaskets on it, one for each side of the block.


Looks sort of like this...
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Old 01-27-2013, 07:50 PM   #3
Renovatio_
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That seems plausible. I drew an approximate outline of where the leak and wetness is. Note that the car is on ramps so it is bound to flow down to the rear of the engine.



Does my terrible drawing match up to where the leak would be?
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Old 01-27-2013, 09:00 PM   #4
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Yes, in my experience, it does. Check the underside of the pipe where it attaches to the upper radiator hose and make certain that there is no wetness leading from the upper hose along the underside of the pipe. Coolant likes to travel against the underside of that pipe and drop onto the top of the block. I know you've already checked the upper hose, but just make absolutely sure that the leak can't be from the hose.

If it is not the hose, then you'll want to find where the pipe attaches to the block on the passenger's side. I'll try and find a picture.
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Old 01-27-2013, 09:07 PM   #5
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Okay here is a better picture. See how the crossover pipe is held on with 4 bolts, two on each side? Each pair of bolts indicates where the crossover pipe empties into the block.

You're going to want to check at the junction between the pipe and the block to see if there is any wetness coming from there.

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Old 01-27-2013, 09:09 PM   #6
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I felt the the radiator hose and where it connects to and felt no moisture or slipperiness. However it's been an hour since the car was warm so its a possibility that it dried already. Regardless I think I'm going to go Occam's razor route and replace the hose and clamps and warm it up again. Hopefully that solves my problems. As my car has 105k on it I would really find it unusual to have a head gasket or crossover pipe leak...

Edit: I'm having a hard time visualizing the bolt area because of air intake, manifold and intercooler stuff in the way. When I investigate it further and hope the area ends up dry.

Last edited by Renovatio_; 01-27-2013 at 09:16 PM.
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Old 01-27-2013, 09:15 PM   #7
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You would think so. Hopefully it's not a head gasket issue; do you see any bubbles in your coolant? edit: I'm sorry, I'm not thinking straight.

The crossover pipe gaskets get extremely hard and compressed. Mine were not leaking at 128k, but after looking at them, I could not understand HOW they weren't leaking. They had turned into hockey puck rubber.
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Old 01-27-2013, 09:20 PM   #8
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I recently replaced the radiator so it's hard to say if there were any bubbles as I haven't fully burped the system. When I noticed a coolant leak I thought it only to be from one source, the radiator; now it appears I have twice the trouble.

Do you know of any good guides/tutorials for getting to the crossover pipe? I imagine it takes off the intake manifold and other parts. Would you happen to know of a parts list (gaskets?) of stuff I would need to replace while getting to the crossover pipe?
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Old 01-27-2013, 09:59 PM   #9
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Here's a good how to for the im, assuming of course that you have a subaru (fill out your profile ):
http://www.iwsti.com/forums/how-inst...-post-6-a.html

As far as a suggested parts list, that's when knowing what year and model you have becomes useful. Probably just tgv-->head gaskets, maybe a few feet of fuel line if you want to cut yours out to make life easier.

Possible upgrades while you're pulling the im:
Silicon turbo inlet, tgv deletes, phenolic spacers.
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Old 01-27-2013, 10:39 PM   #10
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Yea he has an EJ20, this is posted in the 2.0 powertrain forum .
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Old 01-27-2013, 10:52 PM   #11
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There is also the coolant lines that go to the throttle body. And heater core lines that will route under the intake manifold. Check those also.
You can possibly rent a coolant pressure gauge from a parts store to build pressure and "re create" the leak instead of trying to find it while the engine is hot, which equals hot a$$ coolant.
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Old 01-27-2013, 11:45 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by alx8283 View Post
Here's a good how to for the im, assuming of course that you have a subaru (fill out your profile ):
http://www.iwsti.com/forums/how-inst...-post-6-a.html

As far as a suggested parts list, that's when knowing what year and model you have becomes useful. Probably just tgv-->head gaskets, maybe a few feet of fuel line if you want to cut yours out to make life easier.

Possible upgrades while you're pulling the im:
Silicon turbo inlet, tgv deletes, phenolic spacers.
Thanks!

I have a 2002 WRX Wagon.

I might do the turbo inlet since it might make life a bit easier when removing the turbo. Looking into the TGV delete it looks a little expensive to do it in a shop and I'm not exactly the most trustworthy person with a dremel.
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Old 01-28-2013, 12:08 AM   #13
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Op, since it's an '02, I can give you my experience with the inlet on my bugeye.
When I replaced my inlet there were no leaks and it functioned fine (but, well, you know...because racecar). Once I undid the hose clamp to the compressor housing, the rubber underneath the hose clamp had damn near deteriorated and was being sealed by pretty much engine grime/gunk. Essentially, not reusable without some jury rigging. This may not be your case, but its a possibility.
You can usually find some oem units cheap in the classifieds.
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Old 05-26-2013, 11:26 PM   #14
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I want to check on this and see if the crossover pipe was the problem. I recently pulled my motor for the same leak thinking I blew a head gasket. A friend suggested looking at the crossover pipe gasket ring. Here is the picture of the ring. notice the clean section. That is where the coolant was puddling.

just to make it clear.



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Old 05-28-2013, 02:30 PM   #15
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if thats the liquid you're talking about... that doesn't look like coolant to me... that looks like ATF or power steering fluid.
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Old 05-29-2013, 12:34 AM   #16
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looks like the orange coolant .they have orange and green these days ,my 03 has always had green coolant.
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Old 09-28-2022, 10:58 PM   #17
Powattackpow
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Reviving this, MY97 EJ22 NA started leaking coolant and it was all on top of the engine. At first thought it was the cross over pipe, but found a hose underneath the TB towards the passenger side that was torn. Did you end up finding out what was the issue?
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