B8.5 Coolant Leak

[eshghehaudi]

Hi guys, I have a 2014 Audi S5

It started loosing coolant very slowly recently and the car is already in the shop. @80k Miles.
Today I went to the shop and they wanted me to order Thermostat, and Coolant Transfer Pipe... they reassure me this is where the leak is coming from. BUT looking at my maintenance records, all these parts plus the Water Pump were replaced @72K miles. Plus my visual inspection wasn't confidence building.

Anyways, I'm in stuck in a shit situation, in a town with lots of shady mechanics, and no options but to proceed at the whim of the mechanic since the blower is off and everything... so I've ordered the parts to replace them.

At this point, I'm looking for some expertise... I've uploaded a video on YouTube before taking the car in for fixing. I'm 99% sure this leak may not be coming from atop the engine. If you look at 0:27 seconds in the video, a screw is clearly visible where the coolant is dripping off-of. It looks like there's a heat exchanger or intercooler on the driver side where there's coolant lines coming into. (Oil Cooler maybe??)
Does this video resonate/or show other points of failure to consider?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgXvpE3H1Wc

-Thanks everyone,
Dan

[LowKeyLoki]

It looks like it is dripping down from above the oil cooler. The drips on the hoses down there seem too far from the oil cooler gasket for it to be dripping over onto those. Have they pressure tested the cooling system? That’s really the only good way to find the leak without the engine running. If the water pump hasn’t been replaced I’d be more likely to suspect that, when mine started failing I struggled to find the leak until I pressure tested it and could clearly see coolant coming out the weep hole.

[AudiS4b]

+1 for pressure testing first. I should have done this the first time I noticed the car leaking, since I had trouble finding the leak.

1st time at the shop, I had the water pump, thermostat and coolant piping replaced. Car was fine for a couple days, then leaked again.

2nd attempt: Took it to a different shop (Euro race shop). Car was pressure tested and leak was from under the supercharger, had PCV, Oil Cooler gasket and a few other small things replaced. Car runs like a champ now!

[carguy19]

Hi guys, I have a 2014 Audi S5

It started loosing coolant very slowly recently and the car is already in the shop. @80k Miles.
Today I went to the shop and they wanted me to order Thermostat, and Coolant Transfer Pipe... they reassure me this is where the leak is coming from. BUT looking at my maintenance records, all these parts plus the Water Pump were replaced @72K miles. Plus my visual inspection wasn't confidence building.

Anyways, I'm in stuck in a shit situation, in a town with lots of shady mechanics, and no options but to proceed at the whim of the mechanic since the blower is off and everything... so I've ordered the parts to replace them.

At this point, I'm looking for some expertise... I've uploaded a video on YouTube before taking the car in for fixing. I'm 99% sure this leak may not be coming from atop the engine. If you look at 0:27 seconds in the video, a screw is clearly visible where the coolant is dripping off-of. It looks like there's a heat exchanger or intercooler on the driver side where there's coolant lines coming into. (Oil Cooler maybe??)
Does this video resonate/or show other points of failure to consider?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgXvpE3H1Wc

-Thanks everyone,
Dan

It sounds like your mechanic doesn't know shit about finding a coolant leak or just sees dollar signs when you bring your car in.

They should be doing a pressure test first before disassembling anything in your car. If just pressure doesnt show anything, they can put some dye in the coolant and than repeat the test. Any novice mechanic should be able to properly look for a coolant leak without touching a bolt on your car.

I would get my car out of that shop ASAP if I were you.

[eshghehaudi]

Update:

So yea they had pressure tested it... but couldn't identify the leak. So they were all set on taking the blower off to get to the source of the issue I guess.

I asked about the dye test and they didn't wanna bother with it. I think that was my first red flag to get the car outta there. Too late now.

Thank you all for the suggestions, I will have the parts in two days and I'll take em over there for install... then go from there. This turned out to be more of a cluster F* than I expected. Fixes like this always ruin the fun of the car for me :/