Coolant system routing questions

[Charles Bradley]

06 S

 

Today while sitting in traffic I heard a slight pop on the passenger side and saw smoke/steam fly out from the passenger side at the windshield. Temperatures climbed slightly over the next 10 minutes but came back to normal as I made my way home. Upon immediate inspection, I see nothing obvious except some coolant on the ground coming from behind the passenger front wheel, and the fill cap there at the windshield junction was a little wet. There was also a little on a bolt directly down from the torque arm.

 

I do not know the routing of the lines or what to look for once I get this all off, if I can even see where the leak is coming from. Can someone explain the coolant line routing in that area and suspected fail points?

[Charles Bradley]

I found a youtube video showing how to take out the overflow reservoir on a Turbo version of the same car, looks like my leak has something to do with one of the overflow lines and its leaking under pressure, not leaking at all once the car cools down. Any gotchas to this?

[Mr.Flip]

I've had to replace the reservoir on my 05 CTT because it was cracked and leaked out antifreeze behind the front passenger tire. It's not a difficult job, and it can be done in about and hour or two. If there's not much fluid left then your fine, if there's alot then either get a big bag or kitty litter or siphon it out. Remove the plastic covers on the passenger side, remove the passenger headlight (you'll need to take out the neck for the washer fluid, and there's a 16mm bolt to remove for the torque strut mount right under the tank), unscrew (at the engine) and take out the torque strut assembly, remove the torx screw that holds the tank on in the bottom, then remove the hoses that surround it and the main hose at the bottom. Install in reverse order.


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[Charles Bradley]

Took all the plastic off today, realizing that the dealership has apparently lost/broken all the screws that hold it on.

 

Yet I see nothing wrong other than the coolant level being below the min mark. It appears that the overflow tank regurgitated through the cap. The two upper hoses are fine and what I can see of the lower one appears fine as well. I let it warm to operating temp tonight and it held perfectly.

 

Oil level is perfect and no signs of any coolant in the oil either.

[wizard]

I'm not sure how to link, but if you do a search here for 'Coolant expansion tank split pics' you'll find a discussion on a similar issue - right down to the popping sound that you heard.

 

 

[Charles Bradley]

Found it, thank you. Looks like i'll replace the cap, I did not realize the overflow was under pressure. If I see more leaks then I'll change the tank.

[Charles Bradley]

It is still leaking, therefore its the tank, its underneath where I cannot see. Temperatures are holding perfectly though.