Coolant Leaking - 1999 B4

[Ben]

HI all,

Seems i have a rather large leak coming from the lower back part of the engine (kind of directly below the tmic). Discovered upon coming into garage half a hour after parking my car up and seeing about 500mls of coolant on the floor.

Checked header tank which was not far off empty so filled up. Ran car in garage but no leak could be found.

Temp gauge hasnt moved a notch while driving the car today, nor while idling in garage.

Mainly just wanting to know what is at the back part of the engine towards the firewall. Going to try and get access to a hoist later in the week for a closer inspection, but any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks

Ben

[suubyduuby]

My '99 GTB wagon had a coolant leak which gradually got worse.

Was the waterpump on its way out - car had done about 95000kms so was coming up for replacement at 100k service.

Got it done at the same time as the cam belt.

[Guest boostin]

Its probably a small coolant hose that has split. Quite common.

[Ben]

Small coolant hose that has split would be great, cheap fixes are great =) . I had my cambelt etc done about 10,000km ago. Pretty sure Subaru did not replace my waterpump, although quoted for it was in good nick so not touched i think - will check reciepts later.

Although, i thought the water pump was at the front of the engine out of sight on these?

[Joker]

plastic sump guard?

might be from the front if you do have one... but I see you had it on hoist...

[Ben]

yes have sump guard. Upon taking guard off it appeared to be only the very top that was wet. rest seemed fine

[Durty-Sanchez]

Check for damaged radiator cap or if your overflow tank has itself overflowed.. if the later then it could be a sign that you need to investigate further.

[EJ20T]

if it is from the back of the engine most likely be a hose to the heater or turbos coolant supply, but u wont know untill u look

[Guest]

Sounds the same thing as I had the other week found that the coolant was pissing out of a small hose that went to one side of the throttle body. Had to take the intercooler off to replace the hose but luckly not a major in the end. Look at the gap between the throttle body and the intercooler you might find one of the hoses just underneath the intercooler has gone partly white or there is some coolant.

[Ben]

 redbeer said:

Sounds the same thing as I had the other week found that the coolant was pissing out of a small hose that went to one side of the throttle body. Had to take the intercooler off to replace the hose but luckly not a major in the end. Look at the gap between the throttle body and the intercooler you might find one of the hoses just underneath the intercooler has gone partly white or there is some coolant.

Funny you should mention that. Looked in between the throttle body RH side and could see a small amount of coolant. Going to whip the intercooler off tomorrow and have a look. I expect the problem lies within a heater hose or something, and also when driving it sounds like there is a massive water bottle sloshing sound behind my dash. . . hmm.

[EJ20T]

The water bottle in the dash is a feature of the heater core having air in it, i hope for your sake its not a coolant hose under the manifold!

[Ben]

So am i going to have to get used to hearing that sound more now? . . .and would you like to expand on the second part of your answer ??? :-[

[Guest]

Find and fix leak first then top up the coolant levels including the overflow bottle. Start the engine when cold take radiator cap off keep revs at around 2000rpm air bubbles should appear where the cap goes. Top up with coolant if needed when the engine gets up towards normal temperature or the radiator fans turn on put the cap back on turn off the engine this should fix the running water sound. When motor cool check coolant levels also top up overflow bottle if running water noise still there try again.

[Ben]

ok will let you know how i get on when i have found the source of the leak. Many thanks for your help

[Ben]

Well, i whipped the intercooler off today. and it appears a hose from my heating system had split. Only a piece maybe 5-6cm long. Must be the same one that went on yours Redbeer. Was not a standard fitment piece so will have to go and pick one up from subaru tomorrow.

[EJ20T]

Oh well it wasnt to bad, yeah another tip for the bleed is to do it with the front on a incline, by making the expansion tank the highest point makes it easyer to get the air out of the heater core

[Ben]

oh ok thanks. will take that into advice when bleed is done. Cheers

[Ben]

Just a update,

replaced the 5cm long pipe and coolant leak has gone! What a mission though about 4 hours to complete. Hardest part was getting the 3 intercooler pipes to fit back on. Not sure if completely on snug will check tomorrow, can hear a wee bit of air suction when boosting but im not getting any performance loss . Thanks anyway guys ;D